Sir: Today, there are more than 16,000 nuclear weapons globally. These weapons of mass destruction threaten our national security, pose a grave risk of a humanitarian disaster and siphon billions in precious economic resources from the things that matter most. We must not continue to pour more and more taxpayers’ money into these catastrophes-waiting-to-happen. Instead, we should work urgently to eliminate the risks — and the only reliable, verifiable way to do that is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, secure all nuclear materials and eliminate all nuclear weapons. What we need now is that countries having nuclear weapons to come together and begin discussing real, time-bound, actionable plans to eliminate all nuclear weapons globally. It will not happen overnight, but we can get the process started and begin building a safer, saner world for this generation and all generations to come. We must not wait for the inevitable disaster, before we act. ABEER NAZ Karachi