By Shafek Koreshe
NEW YORK, Sept 21 (APP): Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Wednesday said Pakistan had a fully secure, reliable and robust nuclear command and control system under a “complete civilian oversight”.
He was responding to questions after a talk here at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, an event that the CFR streamed live on its website and on Facebook. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was in New York to attend the annual UNGA session.
“We have a very robust and very secure command-and-control system over our strategic nuclear assets … time has proved that it’s a process that is very secure. It’s a process that has complete civilian oversight through the NCA [National Command Authority].”
The Prime Minister said Pakistan has not fielded any tactical nuclear weapons.
“We have developed short-range nuclear weapons as a counter to the Cold Start doctrine that India has developed … those are in the same command-and-control authority that controls the other strategic weapons.”
He said Pakistan was a responsible nuclear state and had a track record of ensuring that its nuclear assets do not fall into wrong hands.
It was Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s first such interaction at a think tank since he assumed his office last month. Abbasi is in New York to lead the Pakistan delegation at the United Nations General Assembly session.
“We have a very robust and very secure command-and-control system over our strategic nuclear assets … time has proved that it’s a process that is very secure”
Responding to a question about the country’s civilian nuclear power programme, he said the government wanted to diversify and utilise all resources to meet the energy needs.
“We have diversified our power generation to add nuclear to it, and these are the four Chinese reactors that are operating. There are three that are small reactors, 340 megawatts each. So I don’t think it’s a source of major concern for anybody,” Abbasi said.
He said Pakistan had a nuclear program since the early ’60s and knows fully well how to handle nuclear waste.
“We’ve managed it for over 50-odd years, I think we can continue to manage it,” he said.
Prime Minister Abbasi said the issue of cross-border incursions from Afghanistan was very serious and recalled that five Afghans were arrested in the recent past for launching attacks inside Pakistan territory.
He said Pakistan had proposed to Afghanistan joint patrols along the border and pointed out that for almost a 350 km long stretch there was not even a single Afghan soldier to man it.
“These huge tracts of land are a haven for drug smugglers and terrorists,” he said
and dismissed the Afghan allegations of any safe havens of terrorists within the Pakistan territory. He mentioned the large scale military operation launched by the Pakistan Army against the terrorists and said over 200,000 of its troops were on the hunt for any miscreants.
He said without proper border management the issue of cross-border terrorism
would be hard to control and that was why Pakistan had started fencing to protect its territory. He also mentioned the presence of over three million Afghan refugees in the country.
Abbasi said nobody wants peace more in Afghanistan than Pakistan. He dismissed the perception about any sanctuaries in Pakistan.
He said the only cross-border penetration was from Afghanistan into Pakistan to attack the troops.
“We have had six suicide attempts in the recent past. Five were Afghan nationals who crossed over into Pakistan and attacked our people, including the deputy chair of the Senate who survived. Twenty-two people were killed in that attack.”
“And we’ve asked the Afghans if there is any sanctuary that they can give us coordinates for, we will take action against that sanctuary. As far as we are concerned, today no sanctuaries exist on Pakistani soil from which any activity takes place against Afghanistan.”
“We have defeated the enemy on our own territory. We have destroyed the sanctuaries. And today the cross-border incursions, if they happen, are from Afghanistan into Pakistan to attack our forces.
“We have defeated the enemy on our own territory. We have destroyed the sanctuaries”
He said Pakistan had an abiding interest in peace in its neighbourhood. “We seriously want to see stability in Afghanistan and desire a negotiated Afghan-led solution.”
“We believe war is no solution,” Prime Minister Abbasi said and added that Pakistan was open to any suggestions that would bring peace to Afghanistan. The Taliban, he said, were Afghan nationals and had nothing to do with Pakistan. “It is for the Afghans to find a way how to deal with them.”
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said democracy in the country was taking roots and the security situation has improved vastly.
“We have taken the fight on terror to the terrorists. We have fought them. We have defeated them. We have suffered a lot.”
“We have 6,500 martyrs in the army. We lost over 30,000 civilians, 50,000 injured. So it’s been a massive effort. It has been a very vicious war. And today over 200,000 troops are involved in that war to defeat terror on our own soil.”
Abbasi said Pakistan suffered economic losses because of this war – estimated over 120 billion (dollars).
“We are today fighting active war against terror with our own resources. This impression that any resources came from abroad is not correct. We fought the war with our own resources and we defeated the terrorists.”
When asked about relations with the United States of America, Prime Minister Abbasi said, “We do not want these to be Afghan-centric”.
“Pakistan wants to move forward and remain engaged with the United States,” he said when asked about his meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence.
He, however, made it clear that there was a need to understand the sacrifices Pakistan had given to make the world a safer place to live in.
Prime Minister Abbasi had his first-ever high-level contact with the US leadership following the blunt allegations against Pakistan by President Donald Trump in his announcement of the new strategy on Afghanistan and South Asia.
He said Pakistan did not even bill the United States for the use of its air and land routes, as it sincerely believed in defeating terrorism.
He said very few payments had been made to Pakistan in terms of military assistance. He, however, was appreciative of the role of the USAID in undertaking several projects in health and social sectors in Pakistan.
“The world needs to understand that it is the only country that is fighting terror on
the ground,” he added.
When asked whether his country would allow US bases in Pakistan, Prime Minister Abbasi said all states should respect the sovereignty of others and added, “I believe there is no need for any bases anymore.”
He said Pakistan could not condone drone strikes on any targets on its soil.
To a question about the releaser of Dr Afridi, who was arrested after the US raid on a hideout to take out Osama bin Laden, he said he was in detention and under trial for
violating the laws of the land. He denied that he had any health issues and said it was his duty that if he had some information, he should have shared it with Pakistani security forces.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan desired equal treatment by the United States of
America towards it and India.
Responding to a question, he said the Indian aggression along the Line of Control was aimed at diverting attention from its atrocities against the civilian population of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the Indian occupation forces were engaged in “unbelievable atrocities” and “crimes against humanity”.
He said Pakistan desired to engage with India on the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir. “We want normal relations with India, on the basis of trust and respect with India,” Abbasi said.
To another question, he said, “Pakistan does not foresee any political or military role
of India in Afghanistan.” He, however, added that India already had trade with
Afghanistan.
When asked to compare his political party with that of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, he said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) believed in the sanctity of the ballot, and that a political change needed to be brought through the ballot and not by street power.
Only the people of Pakistan were to judge in next summers, what would be their choice, he added.
The talk was moderated by David E Sanger, a national security correspondent for the New York Times and one of its senior writers. With a team of his Times colleagues, he was the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting.
