(December 1999): Pakistani Prime Minister Discusses Signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with Aide

Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf discusses signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) with an aide. According to a later interview with the aide, lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada, some time soon after he comes to power Musharraf asks, “Should we sign the NPT?” Pirzada replies, “If India signs we will sign too.” Authors Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark will comment, “India was planning to do nothing of the sort, so Pakistan’s unsecured nuclear weapons program passed into the hands of a military dictator.” [Levy and Scott-Clark, 2007, pp. 292]