ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that the country’s nuclear command and control structure was in place and nuke assets were in safe hands.

“The propaganda being unleashed by some international papers carries no weight,” said Privatisation Minister Syed Naveed Qamar while speaking on a point of order raised by Ahsan Iqbal of the PML-N.

Mr Iqbal drew the attention of the house to a report, titled “Alarm on Pakistan’s nuclear controls” published in International Herald Tribune and reproduced by the New York Times and said that conspiracies were being hatched to de-nuclearise Pakistan after dubbing an “irresponsible state”.

He said the international media was continuously making such propaganda while ignoring Pakistan’s point of view. He said it was imperative to avoid an internal crisis to counter such conspiracies.

He expressed concern over another report that plans were being made by the government to pack courts with ‘loyal’ judges.

Mr Iqbal said the government should implement the mode for appointment of judges as decided under the Charter of Democracy.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan said the government was ready to discuss the Charter of Democracy with the PML-N in totality, but added that it was opposed to the policy of picking and choosing points from the charter.

He said that the appointment of judges would be made in accordance with the procedure and qualifications laid down in the Constitution, including length of practice. “It will be done in a constitutional and transparent manner,” he said.

Earlier, taking part in a debate on president’s address to a joint session of parliament, PML-N’s Khurram Dastgir Khan said the address was a mere constitutional formality. He regretted that the Constitution was still stained with the 17th Amendment. He said that despotic orders issued by former president Pervez Musharraf had not been cancelled and the promise of restoration of the judiciary was yet to be fulfilled.

He said that government’s wrong policies had isolated Pakistan. He criticised the continued drone attacks by the US inside Pakistan’s territory and said the number of such attacks had gone up to 38 since the present government took over.

Mr Dastgir said that all major decisions were being taken by President Asif Ali Zardari. “Where is the supremacy of parliament?” he asked. He criticised the statement of the president defending violation of Pakistan’s airspace by India by terming it a technical mistake.

Marvi Memon of the PML-Q said that the popularity graph of the government was going down as a result of its failure to keep promises made to the people. She called for implementing the 14-point national security resolution and demanded payment of compensation to the victims of drone attacks. She said the Foreign Office was suffering from dysfunctionality, with various important posts lying vacant.

MQM’s Asif Hasnain said the government had failed to solve people’s problems and called for steps to overcome power and gas crises.

He said the provinces should be given the autonomy and more funds be allocated for research in the field of agriculture.