Nowhere is the Pakistani response to India's irrevocable status of being the world's sixth nuclear weapons power more clear than in the Jang newspaper of May 12, a day after New Delhi carried out its first tests. ``It is very interesting that the main character of the Indian nuclear programme is a Muslim scientist whose bomb has become the major threat for the Islamic world. But perhaps, Dr Abdul Kalam does not know that he would soon receive a befitting reply from his Pakistani counterpart,'' the newspaper wrote.

Pakistan's press, in the English-medium or in Urdu, has almost uniformly reacted, in jubilation and panic, to the test-firing of the Ghauri missile and India's newfound nuclear status. The Ghauri has beentreated like a rite of passage, a coming of age, of equality with the old enemy `Hindu India,' while the nuclear tests are described as a vindication of the two-nation theory that underlay the Partition.

Said Senator Akram Zaki, chairman of the Senate standing committee on foreign affairs in the Nation: ``The coming into power of the BJP proved that India is a Hindu India and we are a Muslim Pakistan. It proves the two-nation theory to the hilt...Our legitimacy on Kashmir issue has become more clear.''

With `Shakti,' the codeword for the successful conduct of the first three tests on May 11, the Pakistani press seems to have been gripped by an unnamed fear. It has spat venom on the Americans, accusing them of being hand-in-glove with the Indians, of overweening anger that New Delhi got away with it, but above all dominated by the feeling that Islamabad must give a ``fitting reply'' to this country.

Khabren, another Urdu newspaper, quoting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said Islamabad would now takeother Islamic countries into confidence and soon test the ``Islamic bomb, which has become inevitable after the Indian atomic tests'' somewhere in Baluchistan. Since India might now go to war against Pakistan, it adds, Islamabad should not only mobilise world opinion against New Delhi but also ``concentrate on its relations with China.'' But note the media's reaction to India's fears when the Ghauri missile was test-fired on April 6. Says the Nation on April 17: ``Indian hegemony is unacceptable because it would be benevolent rather than harsh. To be fair, this is not merely because of Hindu viciousness, though there is an element of historical chauvinism and revanchism in Indian nationalist discourse, but because India is a poor country. India cannot afford to be anything other than exploitative in its economic relationships within the region, for it is hungry for the benefits brought by extending its power...''Here's another April 17 analysis on the Ghauri from none other than the respected Englishdaily, The News. ``India is afraid that if Pakistan becomes strong enough to stand on its own feet, it will give India a thrashing that would be hard to forget. Hence all the flutter and nervousness that has been originating from India since April 6 when Ghauri gave its first shaking to the Indian soil and morale.''

Contrast this with an article in the English-language Muslim newspaper on May 14. ``The US may assure us protection by offering us a nuclear umbrella. But such assurances would turn out to be shallow and meaningless...(so) Pakistan needs to exercise this (nuclear) option. There is no other way to meet the challenge from berserk India,'' it said.The Nation, meanwhile, asking if New Delhi's tests were a ``civilisational battle-cry,'' said that if the first three blasts ``were a homage to the Hindu power god Shiva's trident, the subsequent double blasts translated this power into ``strategic defiance.'' Nevertheless, former ISI chief Hamid Gul, instrumental in stoking the insurgency inKashmir, virtually gave Islamabad's strategy away in the Al Akhbar of May 14. If Washington acquiesced to three key demands within 10 days, he said, Islamabad might reconsider its move: the US must recognise Pakistan's nuclear status even if it does not test; assure Pakistan of help on Kashmir; and write off Pakistan's debts.

But the Dawn has also castigated its own foreign minister for using street language with the US special envoy last month visiting the region.