The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, is delighted to hear of the honour just bestowed upon Zia Mian for his consistent and outstanding work over decades in support of regional and global nuclear disarmament. He has just been given the Leo Szilard Lectureship Award. His has been a courageous and longstanding voice defying the governments of Pakistan and India and their acolytes which have created the nuclear shadow on South Asia through their tests of 1998 and their subsequent build-ups of respective nuclear arsenals. As co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials Zia has played an important role in alerting the global public about fissile materials production and stockpiling and with other experts on the Panel suggested ways to move towards their final elimination. While the scope of his advocacy has been global it has had a particularly importance in South Asia since this is where a possible nuclear escalation arising out of a conventional war is most likely. Here, he has opposed the aggressive militaristic chauvinisms that the governments of India and Pakistan have deliberately encouraged vis-a-vis each other. In honouring Zia Mian in this way, the American Physical Society are also implicitly recognizing in appreciation the work of his colleagues such as M.V. Ramana, Praful Bidwai,Pervez Hoodbhoy, Abdul Nayyar, Karamat Ali, and others who have collectively been such an importance voice of sanity in this part of the world.
On behalf of CNDP
Anil Chaudhary
Sukla Sen
Lalita Ramdas
N.D. Jayprakash
Achin Vanaik
