ISLAMABAD - Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua Tuesday said that Pakistan opposed to the use of chemical weapons anywhere by anyone under any circumstances.

Speaking at a Seminar on ‘Chemical Weapons Convention: Implementation and Challenges’ here, Tehmina Janjua said Pakistan remained fully committed to the objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)and continued to actively and constructively participate in Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ mission. The seminar was organised by the Centre for the International Strategic Studies.

The Foreign Secretary highlighted Pakistan’s exemplary role in the implementation of CWC. She underlined Pakistan’s strong commitment to the principles and objectives of the CWC and said Pakistan had also pledged adequate quantities of chemical protection equipment, which could be utilised by OPCW in case of chemical emergencies.

Pakistan, she said, had hosted several regional and international capacity building courses including advanced international assistance and protection course.

In this regard, the Foreign Secretary said in 2015 ‘Pakistan established a Regional CWC assistance and protection centre in Islamabad, which was formally inaugurated by the Director General OPCW,’ which was appreciated internationally.

She categorically said Pakistan had been following the standards adopted by various multilateral export control regimes. She added: “Our national control lists and guidelines are consistent with those of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Missile Technology Control Regime and the Australia Group.”

The foreign secretary appreciated the pre-eminence of women in the field and assured the male colleagues that their participation will help improve the debate on these issues while commemorating of leadership of women in Conference on Disarmament and other disarmament forums.

Ambassador Tariq Osman Haider, former expert member Oversight Board for Strategic Export Controls, underlined the CWC contemporary relevance with Syrian issue and overarching threat of non-state actors.   He reiterated the current issues highlight significance of OPCW being accepted as an objective investigator despite political hurdles.

He said Pakistan had been the member of Export Control of OPCW for several tenures. Most recently, he said, Pakistan was elected to the Executive Committee of OPCW in 2017.

He also acknowledged the need to preserve and strengthen the moral and public backing against CW and for support for the Convention.

Dr Javed Khurshid, Fellow at CISS, focused mainly on implementation challenges to the CWC. He recommended that Pakistan should ensure a National Protection Programme to ensure safety of people and environment.

Dr Khurshid emphasised the importance of effective communication with industry and enhancement of national capacity through academia. He also recommended that Pakistan should develop a national Centre of Excellence for protection and assistance of use of chemical warfare agents with an advisory board handle all technical details.

While discussing the CWC in light of UN Security Council Resolution 1540, Dr Zafar Ali, Director General Strategic Export Control Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the requirements and activities carried out by the state parties under the CWC also enable state parties to fulfill their obligations under UNSCR 1540.  He said Pakistan was manufacturing detection equipment indigenously as well as building mobile-labs to detect the presence of prohibited chemicals.

Furthermore, he said, decontamination training programme is being implemented to decontaminate individuals and equipment in case of chemical incidence.

He highlighted that the OPCW conducted nearly 3,500 industry inspections to verify that the product or consumption of chemicals was intended for solely peaceful purposes. Thus far, there have been several routine inspections of Pakistan’s chemical industry.

The excellent reports are recognition of Pakistan’s effective implementation of the CWC obligations. In this regard, OPCW signed an MOU with the World Customs Organisation which sets the terms for close coordination with the organization for enforcement of transfers’ regime on a global scale.

Brigadier Mohammed Afzal Khan (Retd) highlighted the Investigations of Alleged Use under the CWC, especially the procedural arrangements for the conduct of inspections.

While highlighting the emerging political and technical challenges to the CWC regime, Maryum Siddiq Baba, International Relations Analyst at Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs Directorate, brought forth the issue of access to prohibited chemicals by the non-state actors, the border management challenge and the difficulty of attribution in case of use of chemical warfare agents by non-state actors.

Zawar Haider Abidi, former Member UNSC 1540 committee, spoke on CWC and International Regulatory Framework and challenges to CWC. He said though the CWC almost achieved universality in terms of number of state parties, still from the implementation point of view, it was only on 61.45 per cent.

The speakers also recommended that Pakistan should formally apply for membership in AG and WG as it fully adheres to the groups’ guidelines. The participants, appreciating Pakistan’s good record in export control regimes, endorsed various recommendations given by the speakers.

In his opening remarks, CISS Executive Director Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi said that the CWC was deeply connected to customary international law and the international humanitarian law, specifically in the context of the prohibition of the use of discriminate force and principle of use of proportional force.