Pakistan has formally approached the Nuclear Suppliers Group seeking a deal similar to the one between United States and India to produce nuclear power, saying that it needed more atomic power plants to meet future energy requirements.
Pakistan has urged the NSG, comprising developed industrial countries, not to single out Pakistan by providing nuclear energy to India in the region, local daily Dawn quoted officials in Islamabad as saying.
The NSG was apparently approached after President Pervez Musharraf had been requested by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Pervez Butt to formally seek a nuclear deal from the US and the west to meet the country's 8,800 MW of electricity needs during the next 25 years.
Though initially diffident to approach US to seek a deal like the one struck during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington due to revelations of proliferation by its disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan, Pakistan has in the recent week stepped up its campaign to secure advanced nuclear technology.
"Denying Pakistan a nuclear package like that of India is a clear discrimination against a friend," the newspaper quoted an official as saying.
Musharraf has warned the US and important western countries that there would be "no stability" in the region if India was continued to be favoured and Pakistan ignored despite being a strong ally of the international community against terrorism, it said.
Pakistan wants 13 nuclear power plants against India's request of six and has given the details to the US and some other western countries of its requirements.
"The government has told the US and the western countries that Pakistan deserves a nuclear deal because of being a mature nuclear operator and having 33 years experience of safety," the official said.
Pakistan also informed the US and the western countries that it wanted to import nuclear power plants as a substitute to oil and global warming and that the whole programme would be under the active supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice informed Musharraf immediately after the India-US deal that it no way affected Pakistan.
In the ensuing weeks, however, US officials stated that it would be difficult for Washington to extend a similar deal to Islamabad in the light of the allegations of proliferation.
Recent reports in Islamabad said Musharraf has sought a similar nuclear agreement from US for Pakistan to abandon the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project.
Pakistan officials said that after the US, the UK, Canada and France had also offered nuclear deals to India, which should also be offered to Pakistan failing which Islamabad would be constrained to look for other sources to meet its energy needs, the newspaper said.