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Pakistan, India should start talks to lower high tension : Bill Rishardson

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP) : US ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson on Sunday called on India and Pakistan to start negotiation and lower the prevailing very high tension in the region. "The Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan should sit together and talk to each other to resolve this tension", he said while talking in CNN's live programme "Late Edition". When asked that the US was prepared to mediate on Kashmir issue which is root-cause of the nuclear tests between the two nations, Bill Richardson said, "Kashmir issue needs to be discussed". "The US wants to be helpful in this matter but we can't take unilateral steps without consulting our allies", he added. He suggested that India and Pakistan should immediately start dialogue for de-escalation of tension in the region. Richardson said the five-member Security Council - Russia, China, United States, France and Britain would meet soon to discuss ways to defuse the crisis. Richardson also called on both India and Pakistan to refrain from further nuclear testing and urged them to sign a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)".

Pakistan can go for a thermonuclear device : Qadeer

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP) : The living legend of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Dr Qadeer Khan has said Pakistan has the capability to go for a thermonuclear device, but the decision rests with the government. "We are technically qualified to do this," Dr Khan said in response to a question here Sunday at a press conference at his residence. "If the government wants, we can do it." He said, Pakistan has the capability to go for nuclear weaponisation and the final decision rests with the government. "If we are ordered, we can meet all such demands," he added. Dr Khan, describing the "Pakistani Bomb" as a "peace guarantor" said, "my efforts for the bomb were an effort to ensure security for the people of my country." He said "We [India and Pakistan] should sit down and resolve our problems through talks, like France and Germany which were bitter enemies, or like USA and Soviet Union."

Nuclear tests to ensure peace in the region: Qadeer

ISLAMABAD June 1 (APP) : Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of country's nuclear programme, said Sunday that he believed the nuclear bomb is a peace guarantor. "It has given peace to Europe, it has given peace to other places, it will give peace to us," he told BBC in an interview. However, Qadeer said the nuclear bomb was created "by those people who are supposed to be champions and the father of civilization and human rights," when he was asked by BBC correspondent why he had "created something terrible" for the humanity. "I did not create it," he added. Pakistan is just trying to ensure its security and safety, he said and added, the Indians provoked us to go nuclear. "We had the capability for the last 15 or 16 years, but we never tried to test (even) one." But all of a sudden the Indians tested five devices 50 km from Pakistan border, so "there was a tremendous pressure on us, there was a public demand and there was a psychological pressure on us."

International focus on Kashmir issue

WASHINGTON, DC. June 1 (APP) : Pakistan's response to the Indian nuclear muscle-flexing has created a sense of urgency in world capitals to seek an end to conflicts that bedevil South Asia specially Kashmir. A broad spectrum of international leaders and experts are now focusing on solving the Kashmir problem, the pivotal issue between Pakistan and India. United Nations Security Council and foreign ministers of the eight leading nations are discussing a co-ordinated effort to address the roots of the tension that has led to two wars between the two countries since 1947. The meeting of foreign minsters of eight leading nations would be convened on June 12 in London. US Secretary of State Madeline Albright would play a prominent role in both the sessions of the foreign minsters' conference and that of UN Security Council. The leaders would encourage the two countries to resolve their long-standing differences and co-ordinate the efforts to bring Indian and Pakistani nuclear activities under international supervision. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Riaz Khokhar said his country will "warmly welcome the efforts by the United States in helping us resolve our problems".

Rare coverage of Pakistan in US media

WASHINGTON, DC. June 1 (APP) : The news coverage of Pakistan's nuclear tests in US media was overwhelming and positive. The US analysts and political observers blamed India to start an arms race in South Asia. India was also blamed by US congress leaders and the adminstration for the arms race in the region. Pakistan, its nuclear tests, news analysis, photographs and other related material have been on the front pages of all major newspapers and were the top stories on electronic media. CNN telecast Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's address to the nation live in its entirety and the US newspapers printed the full text of the speech in its columns. "It is rare," said a political analyst. It is only the President of the United States who gets that much coverage, he added. The overall reporting and analysis of Pakistan's nuclear test had a positive angle. Nawaz Sharif emerged as a cool minded statesman in the newspaper columns who was balanced and moderate in reacting Indian nuclear tests.

Pakistan not to conduct any more nuclear tests

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP): Pakistan has got the desired results after successfully completing the series of six nuclear tests and needs no more, in the near future, said, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan in a press conference here Sunday. Denying the reports by the Western media that not all the tests were successful, he said, "the Prime Minister has categorically stated that Pakistan successfully conducted five tests on May 28 and one again on May 30." Dr Khan in his first formal meeting with the international and national media at his residence said; "There is no controversy as all the tests were perfect." Regarding the reports that Pakistan conducted two tests on Saturday, he said, earlier it was decided to have two tests, but the government later decided to conduct only one test. He said Pakistan had perfected the technology through cold tests and computer simulations much earlier, otherwise we would not have been able to respond to the Indians in only a short period of sixteen days. "We have got all the relevant data, we need for our future requirements, if the government feels, it can go for more, but presently we don't need any more tests."

India preparing for new round of nuclear tests: Gohar

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP): India is preparing for a new round of nuclear testing in the first or second week of July, Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said on Sunday. "I have credible information that they (Indians) are in the process of preparing a new test site in the state of Orissa to blast somewhere in the first or second week of July," he told CNN while taking part in its programme, "Late Edition."

Pakistani bomb unified the nation: Mushahid

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP) : Information Minister Mushahid Hussain Sayed said on Sunday that Pakistani bomb has unified the nation unlike the Indian one which created divide there. "The reason is the strategy of openness, fair and frank approach of the Prime Minister on the very issue concerning our legitimate security requirements." He was addressing the outgoing probationers of Information Services Academy here at PID center. Mushahid said, Prime Minister all the time was very cool, calm and deliberated upon the issue in a statesman like manner. "Prime Minister made it very clear to all the world leadership who contacted him that he cannot give any commitment, neither can he trade the national security," the Minister told.

Credit cards valid for Pak rupee transactions only

ISLAMABAD, June 1 (APP): All credit cards, issued by banks operating in Pakistan, will be valid for Pak rupee transactions in Pakistan only, until further notice. The decision has been taken due to the recently imposed restrictions on Foreign Currency Accounts by the State Bank of Pakistan, said the Citibank and ANZ Grindlays banks officials here Sunday.