ISLAMABAD: The National Command Authority (NCA) meets on Thursday to reassure the world that its nuclear weapons are safe and the country remained committed to non-proliferation goals.
The meeting, which would be chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is taking place against the backdrop of media disclosure that the United States had intensified surveillance of Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The revelation was based on documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The former CIA contractor is currently in Russia on a temporary asylum.
The NCA meeting will be attended by Foreign Affairs and National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Finance Minister Ishaq Khan, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the three services chiefs and the chief of Strategic Plans Division.
The NCA is the principal forum responsible for command and control of the country’s nuclear arsenal. It also looks after the security and safety of nuclear installations.
This will be the second huddle of the civilian and military leadership in the past fortnight.
The last time they got together on Aug 22 for the meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, they decided to set up a Cabinet Committee on National Security.
The newly-constituted national security committee is similar in composition to the NCA except for the difference in their mandates.
The leaked document on US intelligence ‘black budget’ revealed that US concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear programme were far deeper than known so far. The document is said to have divided the world into Pakistan and the rest.
The Washington Post story has further claimed that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had declined to certify that Pakistan’s nuclear safeguards were enough saying the matter could not be discussed in public.
The US is primarily concerned about the possibility of nuclear facilities being attacked by militants, much like attacks on other security installations, and prospects of extremists having infiltrated military and intelligence ranks.
Fears of extremists penetrating military ranks were compounded after the Army in 2011 arrested and sentenced a senior brigadier and other officers for linkages with outlawed Hizbut Tehrir.
US fears about the Pakistani programme, Washington Post notes, have been driven by uncertainty about how the programme was being managed instead of some specific intelligence.