Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday dismissed India`s
call to effectively secure its nuclear assets as "self
serving," and said New Delhi should instead work with it on
establishing a "regional strategic restraint regime".
Following a suicide attack yesterday outside the
Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra – considered a base for
some of the country`s strategic weapons – Foreign Secretary
Nirupama Rao had said that India hoped the Pakistan government
would "continue to take steps to effectively secure their
nuclear assets".
Responding to a question on Rao`s comments, Foreign
Office spokesman Abdul Basit today said, "Such remarks are
evidently self-serving and integral to India`s efforts to seek
unilateral advantage at the cost of regional strategic
stability by its feverish militarisation and working on
dangerous military doctrines.
"Instead of finger pointing, India should accept our
proposal for promoting a regional strategic restraint regime
and work with Pakistan to promote strategic stability in South
Asia," he said.
Basit said India should "stop its opportunistic
propaganda against Pakistan".
Suggestions about the restraint regime were made to Rao
during her recent meeting with her Pakistani counterpart
Salman Bashir on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly
session in New York, Basit said.
He added that Pakistan had "refrained from commenting on
India`s own record on nuclear safety and security and its
overt and covert endeavours to build its weapons of mass
destruction programmes".
Bureau Report
