The near-collapse of the Pakistani economy is directly related to Chagai. Nawaz Sharif's impounding of foreign currency deposits, announced in his May 28 austerity package, prec ipitated the process. Economically, weaponisation will prove extraordinarily burdensome. Even a small arsenal, one-fifth the size of China's, could over some years cost India Rs.50,000 crores, which exceeds the country's entire annual expenditure on primary education. Even a minor arms race with India will prove ruinous for Pakist an, which is already on the verge of collapse.
Nuclear weapons carry high ecological costs.
These include radiation and waste releases at each stage of the nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining upwards. All handling, transportation and storage of nuclear materials involves harmful exposure to radioactivity. The social and political costs of nuclearisation perhaps dwarf all other costs. This is simply incompatible with humane and civilised values. Nuclearisation entails matsyanyaya, a Hobbesian conception of human beings in constant conflict.