Islamabad: Pakistan should invoke its nuclear deterrence in the wake of the "hyped escalation" that has followed the Mumbai terror attacks - and also organise candlelight vigils throughout the country in memory of those who died in the strikes, an analyst of energy geopolitics has said.

"The imperatives of mature statesmanship required Pakistan to not only not blink in the face of this hyped escalation, but come up with its own level of escalation by invoking its nuclear deterrence," Zeenia Satti wrote in The News.

The article was headlined "Post-Mumbai hype".

On the diplomatic side, Satti wrote, vigils should be organised in every major city of Pakistan, "bringing youth out to the streets to light candles and show support and sympathy for the dear departed souls in Mumbai."

"Outside the Indian Embassy in Islamabad, representatives of civil society and state should leave condolence messages with bouquets of flowers that spread out for yards around," Satti added.

Militarily and politically, the writer maintained, "the response must be different. It is for times like these that nuclear deterrence was invented as a concept in statesmanship".

Pakistan's leaders, she maintained, "in a classic show of buffoonery", had already missed the point.

"They attempted deterrence by threatening to pull out of NWFP operation! This was a show of hopeless political immaturity which will have dire consequences for Pakistan's own war against reactionary religious forces within its own borders."

"Pakistani leaders seem unaware of the fact that their country possesses nuclear deterrence. It was (President Asif Ali) Zardari's call to rescind the no-first-use pledge, putting it to the exegencies of politics, as he did when he reneged on the Murree Declaration (on power sharing with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after the general elections this year)," Satti wrote.

"This would have instilled sobriety amongst the jingoistic Indian street demonstrators and would have produced peace rallies of equal proportion," Satti maintained.

 

Source : IANS