Pakistan on Wednesday rejected as highly exaggerated a report by International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) about its nuclear programme, which claimed that Islamabad possessed up to 110 nuclear weapons and spent a whopping $2.2 billion on its atomic arsenal last year. In the report titled “Don’t bank on the bomb”, ICAN said Pakistan had between 90 and 110 nuclear weapons. “Its arsenal has grown substantially in recent years, from 60 to 80 nuclear weapons in 2008,” it said.
The report, issued this week, quoted sources as saying that Pakistan intended to double its arsenal in the next five to 10 years with the goal of having up to 350 weapons of varying yield. Commenting on the report, Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said the ICAN report was highly exaggerated and part of an insidious propaganda campaign. He underlined that Pakistan’s strategic programme was modest aimed at maintaining a credible minimum deterrence to ensure national security. The spokesman emphasised that Pakistan’s primary focus had been on economic development and welfare of its people. He said Pakistan was opposed to arms race in South Asian or in any other part of the world.
