India and Canada signed a civil nuclear deal on June 28, 2010 on sidelines of a summit of the Group 20 of the developed and emerging nations. PM Manmohan Singh assured Ottawa that the imported Uranium and atomic technology will not be used for 'any unintended purpose. His Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper called it 'a good agreement saying, We cannot live in the past of 1970s. Canada is the eighth nation to reach a civil nuclear deal with India since the Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted a 34-year ban on India in 2008. New Delhi has had nuclear technology deals with US, France and Russia while Japan has also pledged to extend cooperation with India in the field of civil nuclear technology. In the case of Pakistan though, it has insisted that aid should be contingent upon signing the NPT. Both these NSG members are contravening their NPT legal commitments because the deal would create a strategic imbalance in the South Asian region and it would fundamentally change Indias capacity to build new bombs in a way that might impact its nuclear balance with Pakistan. The possibility of India using this civil nuclear energy for military purposes cannot be ruled out altogether. India, meanwhile, is objecting and asking for details of a Sino-Pak nuclear deal which makes little sense as New Delhi itself has signed similar deals with US, Canada, Russia, France and Japan. The US double standards are clear for all to see as Washington has denied the same nuclear deal to Pakistan that it has offered to India on a plate. Pakistan direly needs nuclear energy to overcome the countrys ever-increasing energy demands. The Canadian nuclear deal with India also shows the double standards of global organizations. For instance, the NSG forbids transfer of nuclear materials to the countries who have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has, however, made an exception of India by clearing the India-US nuclear deal in view of New Delhis, shall we say, flawless non-proliferation record. But India has a history of nuclear proliferation. Hindu extremists and Indian scientists have been involved in theft of nuclear material and in technology transfers between Israel and India, as well as other countries. As far as safety is concerned, two incidents at the Indian Bhabha Atomic Plant and a radiation contamination at the Kaiga Nuclear Plant in Karnataka are indicative of general laxity of safety measures by the Indians that certainly do not match the rhetoric of 'peaceful nuclear programme. As compared to Indian nuclear safety and non-proliferation record, Pakistans nuclear command and control system remains one of the most sophisticated and secure in the world. No such incident has ever occurred. Looking at the factual record and energy needs of the country, the US and Canada should also sign a similar civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan. The discriminatory approach of ignoring the genuine energy needs of Pakistan and egging on the other party might start an arms race in South Asia. -AFIA AMBREEN, Rawalpindi, June 30.