Oct 20 , 2015
News
Nuclear assets need of the country: PM
APPLONDON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday said that Pakistan’s nuclear program was meant to maintain deterrence against any external aggression and government would not compromise on national interests.
Talking to the newsmen here during a stopover on his way to the four-day official visit to the United States, the prime minister said that Pakistan had developed its nuclear programme under the country’s requirement.
“This is our position which cannot be compromised,” he said, and mentioned his pre-departure statement in which he had described Pakistan’s strategic assets as secured under a foolproof arrangement.
When asked whether the government would make any compromise on country’s nuclear assets under any foreign pressure, the prime minister asked, “Who was the prime minister in 1998 when Pakistan carried out nuclear tests.”
The prime minister reiterated that establishment of peace in Afghanistan was inevitable for peace in the region. To a question about the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s afresh charges of rigging in the recent bye-election in Lahore, the prime minister said such politicians needed to manifest political maturity to the people.
“It is political immaturity to make hue and cry about the rigging all the time.”
Recalling the PTI’s sit-in, formation of judicial commission on PTI’s demand and the government’s decision to contest bye-election in NA-122 instead of obtaining stay order, the prime minister said the PTI was now alleging about transfer of votes after facing defeat.
He said the PML-N candidate Ayaz Sadiq won the seat in NA-122 in Lahore and even the security deposit of PTI’s candidate was confiscated in Okara bye-poll. “They should learn a lesson from this. Instead, they are talking of addition or deletion of votes,” the prime minister said, urging the opposition party to set positive trend in national politics.
The prime minister said he had inked charter of democracy with late Benazir Bhutto to lay foundations of mature politics but it was saddening that the PTI has resorted to that old kind of politics.
To another question, Nawaz Sharif was confident that the government would rid the country of load-shedding till 2018, before the end of his stint.
Dispelling the impression of any foreign pressure against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the prime minister said some of its allied projects had already been launched and would be completed timely.
Responding to another question, the prime minister assured the overseas Pakistanis that the government was striving for granting them the right to vote.
About the Indian intervention in Pakistan, the prime minister said Pakistan had handed over relevant record to the United Nations containing solid proofs. Earlier, the prime minister was received at the airport by the representative of British Government Ms Kathryn Colvin, CVO, SCIL and Syed Ibne Abbas, Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk