Pakistan not to go for arms race: PM: Credible defence to be ensured
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, July 2: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday Pakistan was a peaceful country and committed to arms race reduction in the region but at the same time it would maintain a credible defence for its territorial sovereignty.
Talking to a group of newsmen at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), he said: “In our view there was great need of economic well-being of the people in the South Asia region as it needed infrastructural facilities for changing its population’s living standards.”
Mr Aziz, who is proceeding to the US later this month for his first official visit, avoided a direct reply when asked about Pakistan’s reaction on the defence pact recently concluded between the United States and India.
The Foreign Office had expressed concern over the deal which, in its view, would disturb the balance of power in the region.
He said Pakistan had made necessary arrangements for its defence and it will maintain a credible deterrence to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and integrity.
Mr Aziz brushed aside as rubbish when a newsman asked him to comment on the opposition’s fears that the government was planning to rig the forthcoming local body polls, saying, “it would be better not to comment on such irresponsible remarks”.
Responding to a query about start of work by the cabinet sub-committee with regard to the corruption in the outgoing local government heads as reported by a large number of treasury MPs, he said “it will consider whenever any complaint of corruption is received”.
About start of work by the cabinet sub-committee with regard to corruption by the outgoing local government heads as alleged by a large number of treasury MPs, he said “it will consider whenever any complaint is received”.
He said there were other institutions as well carrying out the accountability but he had set up the sub-committee to satisfy the MPs.
Earlier, the premier inaugurated the first laboratory at PCRWR which would provide services of testing drinking water by computerized testing techniques and will receive contaminated water samples from all over the country.
After inauguration, he told newsmen that the laboratory will provide testing facility without which the efforts of providing clean drinking water could not bear fruit.
He said provision of clean drinking water was one of the four areas of focus under the Khushal Pakistan programme under which sewerage system, gas, and electricity will be provided and roads will be built.
He said the effort was aimed at passing on the fruits of economic turnaround to the common man. The government had allocated Rs2.5 billion for the eradication of hepatitis.
He said the government was focussing on a preventive programme for which a media campaign was being launched to persuade housewives to use boiled drinking water.
