Zardari's nuke remote control to be snatched?

A new bill passed by the Pakistani parliament may snatch the remote control of the country's nuclear bombs from President Asif Ali Zardari.

The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee has been assigned a significant role in the National Command Authority while the president of Pakistan, despite being the supreme commander of the armed forces under the constitution, figures nowhere in an extremely essential law passed by the National Assembly last week, The News reports.

The bill gives several important powers to the NCA chairman or the Pakistan prime minister. It is being said that for various reasons, including the pressure exerted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on the government in closed-door meetings, President Asif Zardari was pushed away from the seat of NCA's chairmanship.

"Powers of the chairman: All the powers and functions shall rest with the NCA on whose behalf, the chairman will exercise these powers and functions who may in consultation with the NCA and subject to such limitations as he may specify, delegate any of these powers and functions to the CJCSC and the director-general, strategic plans division, who may further sub delegate the same to any NCA employee," the bill says.

In the original ordinance, passed during Pervez Musharraf's regime, the president had every authority wherein the prime minister had a secondary role. 

According to the law, the NCA shall have powers to perform all such functions that are necessary to implement objects and purposes of this legislation, which include, 'without being limited, to exercise complete command and control over all nuclear and space-related technologies.'   

Image: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari