ISLAMABAD: A Russian diplomat speaking at a seminar on “Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Strategic Stability” signaled support for Pakistan’s lobbying since last year to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which has 48 member countries.
Pavel Didkovsky, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Islamabad, said on Friday that Moscow was not opposed and had no wish to block Pakistan’s application to join the NSG. While acknowledging efforts of Pakistan for regional stability, its declaration last year of a unilateral moratorium on nuclear weapon testing, and backing Russia’s stance on prevention of the arms race in a silent space war, he complimented Pakistan for adhering to international conventions on its national export program.
Didkovsky, speaking at a seminar organized by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), added that a criteria-based approach for inclusion of non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) was possible to the NSG and his country. China, among other countries, is engaged in devising a framework suitable for all participants of the group.
Defense and foreign relations analyst Qamar Cheema said, speaking to Arab News: “It is a huge diplomatic victory for Pakistan to have Russia’s support to be a member of NSG.”
“It’s a very constructive approach,” said Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, hailing Russia’s support. “MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) and NSG are realizing the significance of Pakistan as a nuclear-capable state.”
Jaspal, a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University who participated as a speaker at the SVI seminar, said that the arms race in the region has diminished prospects of arms control. The arms race is sustained by the Western world’s patronage of India, which accepts the country in multilateral export control regimes such as Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and more recently the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, he continued. He said India was amassing weapons due to NSG’s waiver which the south Asian country is vying for.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group was founded in 1974 to prevent nuclear proliferation through stringent checks and balances over the material export, technology and equipment used for nuclear weapons manufacturing.
Pakistan, backed by Turkey and China, applied for NSG’s membership on May 19, 2016, and maintains that non-discriminatory criteria-based approach is needed for all non-NPT countries for inclusion in the group. The move is backed by several nations, including Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Furthermore, Pakistan’s former permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament and United Nations in Geneva, retired Ambassador Zamir Akram, said Pakistan was seeking to maintain strategic stability in South Asia as a state with credible deterrence.
Ambassador Akram, an expert on non-proliferation, also said India’s acquisition of triad delivery systems, regional political issues, uncertainty in Afghanistan, and Indian aggression at the disputed Pakistan-India border and its use of proxy agents to inflict damage on Pakistan, have put stability and deterrence at risk.
Pakistan’s defensive strategy, he said, has had an effective counterterrorism mechanism, developing low-yield weapons, sea-based deterrent, achieving multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle capability, and long-range ballistic missiles.
He emphasized: “But still we are ready for dialogue and more confidence-building measures to stabilize the situation.”
Cheema said: “Pakistan must lobby to be a member of all multilateral export control regimes. Pakistan has strong institutional apparatus for taking care of its sensitive nuclear installations, which the International Atomic Energy Agency has acknowledged many times.”
Russia signals support for Pakistan’s NSG candidature
Russia signals support for Pakistan’s NSG candidature
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
