DHAKA (PTI): Pakistan will not roll back its nuclear program but “will not possess more technology or ingredients to proliferate arms,” Pakistani foreign minister Sardar Aseef Ahmed Ali said in an interview published here recently.
Pakistan “has the capability for nuclear buildup but we have given the assurance that we will not do so and we are simply keeping option for nuclear buildup open for security reasons,” Alit old English Language Daily “The Telegraph.”
“We (Pakistan) are at the receiving end of the U.S. Administration in this regard, “he said when asked about the American perception of nuclear proliferation by Pakistan. “It would be difficult for Pakistan to sign nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) under the given situation when India was doing everything for making proliferation,” Ali was quoted by the Daily as saying.
The Pakistan foreign minister was quoted as saying that “Presser’s proposal for conditional zing the signing of NPT with aid had pushed Pakistan to a stake.”
“The US was indirectly giving yet to on Pakistan regarding nuclear weapons, which was unjust, unfair and detrimental to the international norms,” Ali told the newspaper, adding that Washington was “trying to embarrass Pakistan by giving embargo on defence.”
Ali was quoted as saying that “India was not in a position to go to war.” when asked what the necessity was for Pakistan to maintain a nuclear plant if India was not in a position to go to war, he Said “this is just because we cannot let our defence shelved.”
Article extracted from this publication >> December 24, 1993
