ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said on Wednesday that the country’s nuclear technology was indigenous and there was no question of exporting it.
“Pakistan neither imported nuclear technology nor has any intention of exporting it,” he told newsmen at a briefing.
He dismissed as “baseless and Indian-influenced” allegations about “cooperation with Libya in the nuclear field.”
The minister condemned unprovoked Indian shelling on civilians living near the Line of Control in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Indian forces resort to unprovoked firing against civilians on the LoC whenever India is faced with stiff resistance from the Kashmiri people in occupied Kashmir and is under world pressure to stop violence against them,” he said.
About the recent operation against suspected extremists in Waziristan, he said the forces had acted against them after receiving confirmed information through the use of modern technology.
“The action was against Al Qaeda activists, that included one of the top 15 men on the terrorists’ list,” he said.
He asserted that no Pakistani found involved in extremist activities would be deported.
He said President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had taken up the issue of the India-Israel military nexus forcefully with the United States leaders and said that an imbalance in the conventional field should not be created between Pakistan and India.
He said Pakistan stood for peace and wanted to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue. “But we are also fully alive to our defence requirements and ready to defend ourselves against any adventure,” he said.
The information minister said a decision about sending troops to Iraq would be taken after taking into confidence the nation, parliament and the Organization of Islamic Conference.—APP