PM’s advisor says dialogue between Pakistan and India will help reduce tension on LoC
Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Sunday that Pakistan did not want to be part of arms race, however, keeping in view the regional situation, Pakistan would continue to maintain a balance in conventional weaponry.
Talking to reporters after launching Shahid Javed Burki Institute of Public Policy (SJBIPP) at Netsol building, the PM’s Advisor said that despite all difficulties Pakistan had been catering to the needs of its armed forces and would continue with this spirit in future as well.
To a question, Aziz said that it was India that had suspended the two-country dialogue and now it wanted to initiate the dialogue process again, as the Indian prime minister telephoned his Pakistani counterpart in this regard.
In this connection, he added, the foreign secretaries of both the countries would soon restart meetings to restore the dialogue from the point it was suspended. “Of course, Pakistan and India will discuss at length all the mutual issues,” he said, asserting that an instant benefit of the two-way talks would be mitigation of prevailing tension on the Working Boundary.
To another question, Aziz said that Pakistan’s stance on the core issue of Kashmir was very much clear and a logical conclusion of Pak-India dialogue was impossible sans Kashmir.
He said that security was an important component of foreign policy, and the security and economy was post and parcel, therefore, “We shall not compromise on our security and national interest”. If the two-way dialogue moved forward successfully, the meeting between prime ministers of both the countries was possible, he responded to a reporter’s query.
In the backdrop of APS Peshawar incident, he said that relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan improved and both the countries worked on intelligence sharing. He also expressed the firm resolve that they would not let their respective territory to be used for terrorism against each other.
To a query, Aziz said that effective reforms were being introduces in religious seminaries, FATA and educational institutions, and these steps would help end extremism.
This is a fact that Pakistan doesn’t want to involve in any kind of an arm race either conventional or nuclear in a region. Pakistan only goes for the sake of territorial integrity and political sovereignty. The country has high concerns primarily to meet the parameters of national security nothing else. It is very much evident that it is India who initiated nuclear weapons tests in the region. The very existence of Security Dilemma makes a country to make every measure to secure its statehood against any kind of threat especially militarily.
The repercussions of Indian military developments on Pakistan are crystal clear. Pakistan has to rely on its own military muscle to prevent India’s threat of use of force or actual use of force. Having weak economy, Pakistan cannot compete with India in arms race. Pakistan has allotted only Rs 700 billion for defense purposes which is far lesser in comparison with Indian defense budget which is 2.29 trillion Indian rupees. With such a grave asymmetry, Pakistan can never be indulged into any arms race with India.
Comments are closed.