ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Monday said Pakistan’s nuclear programme was for the purpose of its own defence.
He also strongly refuted the social media claims that Pakistan would launch a nuclear strike if Israel did so first. Speaking in the Senate, he referenced a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2011 interview, doing the rounds on the social media, being wrongly portrayed as recent.
He insisted that the irresponsible and fake news had also been picked by UK-based Daily Mail. The matter was raised by Senator Syed Masroor Ahsan of PPP during the budget speech and then Leader of Opposition Syed Shibli Faraz of PTI also expressed his concerns.
Dar pointed out that the fake news did the rounds on the social media for a few days particularly after June 13 and then mentioned a 14-year-old clip of Netanyahu’s interview, showing him saying that 70 percent of debt could be cleared if the nuclear programme was rolled back.
Dar also talked of a clip of US President Donald Trumps about Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and said they had checked and found it was an AI-generated fake clip.
He said in the latest social media intrigue, Iranian generals had purportedly said that Pakistan will nuke Israel if it dared attack the country.
Dar further remarked, “Israel dare not look at Pakistan,” shortly after informing the House that a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing the rounds on social media and that was in fact an interview given by him back in 2011.
Dar emphasized that nothing was being taken lightly and explained that the armed forces were fully alert as they were during the conflict with India.
He said nuclear and missile programmes were the nation’s assets, the security of which was a collective responsibility. The deputy premier maintained that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was for the purpose of self-defence.
“It is our deterrence, as Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in response to the tests carried out by India, for parity, peace and security in the region,” he made it clear.
Dar said attacking nuclear installations was a serious crime because the consequential damage could be unimaginable.
Earlier, Shibli Faraz contended that it did not make a difference if the remarks came in 2011 or centuries ago and said these reflected a mindset and emphasized that these were the remarks by a satanic power which continues to attack Islamic countries one after another.
He argued, “We should not take it lightly. We should factor it in. Our readiness should not be a victim of complacency,” he said, adding that Israel had done with Iran could also be done with Pakistan because they could not digest the nuclear programme of an Islamic country.
Shibli made it clear that complacency was one word that was to be thrown out of the vocabulary of those responsible to protect and safeguard nuclear assets.
Earlier, taking part in the budget debate, PTI’s Parliamentary Party Leader in the House Barrister Syed Ali Zafar said there was no strategy to deal with the key challenges, like unemployment, growth issue and inflation and taxation challenges.
He alleged that the PMLN-led federal government was trying to paint a rosy picture of the economy in the finance bill but in reality the country was stuck in inflation, heavy taxation, unemployment and frustration.
Ali Zafar emphasized that every budget had a growth strategy, which was not visible in the present one and that the correct use of resources was required as a part of the strategy to set the country’s economy in the right direction.
However, he pointed out, “Instead of this, the PDM government has spent the entire year planning and strategizing how to involve (former prime minister) Imran Khan and his wife and other leaders of PTI in false cases and to keep them in jail.”
He also accused the government of suffering from bankruptcy of ideas and said his party would not vote for the budget not only because of injustices against Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi but also because this budget was a road map toward destruction.
Ali Zafar said Pakistan had won the war against India, but the threat was not over yet and contended, “For this fight, we need unity which is only possible if there is political stability”.
He said the government should stop injustice, and what he called ‘political terrorism against the PTI and focus on improving the economy, which was not possible without political stability.
One of his major objections to the federal budget was that it lacked any strategy for increasing employment.
“This is why I say that this budget is a mutiny against every household, every farmer, every student, every child, every elderly, and every Pakistani man and woman,” he claimed.
He noted that the government predicted a GDP growth of 4.2 percent, which was totally unrealistic and asked how this could be achieved when the government was taxing everything from petrol to e-commerce and even pensions. He added that 42 percent of new taxes had been imposed in the budget.
This budget, which his party rejects, he charged, was a war against pensioners, who have also been taxed, besides the farmers, e-business owners, small businesses, and the entire middle class.
He said the powers of arrest were being given to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) through the finance bill, creating an atmosphere of fear among the business community.
He maintained that taxing solar panels at the rate of 18 percent was not a climate-friendly policy, but an anti-climate one.
“The claim by government that it has increased salaries by 10 percent and pensions by 7 percent was really a symbolic slap – not a relief,” he added.
PPP Senator Masroor Ahsan noted that the federal government had earmarked very meager allocations for the development schemes and Sindh, especially Karachi.
He explained that the government had earmarked only Rs15 billion out of the total proposed funds of Rs400 billion for the construction of Hyderabad Sukkur Motorway in the next fiscal year.
Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman of JUIF emphasized the need for the state institutions to confine themselves to their constitutional role, which he called was the prerequisite for restoration of peace, stability and economic progress in the country.
Taking part in the budget debate, he explained how recently his nephew Maulana Assad Mehmood was intercepted by 60-70 terrorists in Dera Ismail Khan, who was leaving for Lakki Marwat for funeral prayers, and was allowed to go only after some hectic efforts.
“Things have now reached our homes,” he said, adding, “Are we being punished for siding with the army and the state?” “Will we be forced to take up arms again against those terrorists,” Maulana Atta remarked.
