Pakistan PM Imran Khan confidently stated that Islamabad does not want a war with India and his country would never use nuclear weapons first. Even before the dust had settled, Pakistan Foreign office, largely controlled by Pakistan Army, brushed away Imran Khan’s statement.
The spokesperson said that the prime minister’s comments on Pakistan’s approach towards conflict between two nuclear-armed states are being taken out of context,” the Foreign Office said in a brief statement. “While conflict should not take place between two nuclear states, there’s no change in Pakistan’s nuclear policy,” it added.
Prime Minister’s comments on Pakistan’s approach towards conflict between two nuclear armed states are being taken out of context. While conflict should not take place between two nuclear states, there’s no change in Pakistan’s nuclear policy.
— Spokesperson ?? MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) September 2, 2019
Earlier, as reported by the EurAsian Times, PM Imran Khan said that Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first. The statement came after Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh stated that India must reconsider its No first use policy on Nuclear Weapons.
Addressing the International Sikh Convention’s closing session, Khan reiterated that he had conveyed to India that if New Delhi took one step for progress with Pakistan, Islamabad would take two more. “We face climate change but both countries together can deal with climate change issues,” he noted.
“War solves nothing,” the Khan emphasised, adding: “Whoever tried to resolve conflicts through wars ended up with more problems than before.”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) government was following the same viewpoint that had led to the creation of Pakistan, Khan noted, accentuating that what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the ideology of which he had underscored earlier was what the BJP was following — was perpetrating in India was inhumane.
“No religion, including Hinduism, allows this kind of barbarity,” he said. The PM stressed further on how eight million people were locked up in Jammu and Kashmir because of a curfew that has entered its 27th consecutive day.
“I fear the current ideology of the RSS would leave space for no one in India. If the RSS ideology is not stopped, they would go for people of all faiths,” the premier noted, also referring to how people in India were lynched for consuming beef.
The PM had added that the narrative was centred on a country of one billion people, with nuclear weapons and extreme ideology and philosophy. “Kashmir is a disputed territory and its future is to be decided by a plebiscite of its people,” PM Imran had said.
