Pakistan not in arms race with any country, says Sharif

E-Paper | June 07, 2026

ISLAMABAD: During a visit to the National Command Centre (NCC) on Friday Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif renewed his government’s commitment to maintain credible minimum deterrence.

The prime minister, who recently spoke at a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, made a rare visit to an unnamed “technical site” and a “weapons storage site”.

The prime minister was accompanied by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Khalid Shamim Wynne, Director General of Strategic Plans Division (SPD) retired Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai and other senior military officers.

This was Mr Sharif’s second meeting with members of the National Command Authority (NCA) in a month. On Sept 5, he presided over a meeting of the NCA which had decided to preserve “full spectrum deterrence” against any possible external aggression.

Mr Sharif’s visit took place days after Gen Wynne inaugurated “two newly constructed state of the art, fully protected Network Centric enabled Command and Control Centres of Naval Strategic Force Command”.

At the National Command Centre (NCC) of the National Command Authority (NCA), the prime minister said Pakistan was not in an arms race, but being fully alive to the evolving security dynamics of the region it would maintain full spectrum deterrence to reinforce strategic stability in South Asia.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Mr Sharif was briefed on the indigenously developed strategic command, control and support system, which is said to have been designed to facilitate decision-making at the NCC.

He was also given a demonstration of the sophisticated connectivity of countrywide strategic assets.

In his briefing on the occasion, Gen Kidwai said NCC was a highly secure and fully protected facility.

During his visit to a ‘technical site’ Mr Sharif was briefed by Commander Army Strategic Force Command Lt Gen Syed Tariq Nadeem Gilani.

Mr Sharif expressed complete satisfaction over the safe, secure and fool-proof security architecture in place for the physical safety and security of strategic assets.

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Pakistan

Baqir Sajjad Syed is the Foreign Affairs and National Security Correspondent for Dawn. His career of over 25 years spans print and broadcast journalism. He is a former UN Reham al-Farah Fellow and held a Pakistan Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington, DC. He tweets @baqirsajjad

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Nizamuddin Ahmad Aali

Oct 05, 2013 09:06am

Mr. Sharif should hire foreign minister ASAP and let him do the talking. He should select the foreign minister with adequate diplomatic skill as well as eloquent speaking skill. My experience as a student of diplomacy the Pakistanis are poor speakers and sub-standard compared to other countries reps. My guess is that the quota system and nepotism has taken its toll on the quality of diplomats. It is about time the selection and training should be revised and revised for better. Pakistan is also outside Punjab. P.M. should look outside Lahore also. This sounds like a biased comment, but in reality this is bitter fact. It hurts to see my diplomat misbehaving or talking crudely in a elite gathering. The others find it laughable but I see as humiliating experience as a Pakistani. Within thirty years I have seen serious decay in quality of foreign service and I know why. This comment is without any malice or hard feeling, based on love for Pakistan.

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Ravi Ingale from Pune

Oct 05, 2013 09:34am

Sharif sahab Pakistan(120-130) have more nuclear weapons than India(90-100). Such speaking is meaningless.

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kavithait

Oct 05, 2013 10:53am

How can anyone believe that a country spending one third of its national budget on defense is not in an arms race? Is there any credibility for such statements where facts are very different from the presentation?. I do not question the need for any level of security for a sovereign country but both India and Pakistan need to join hands to reduce rhetoric, downsize their defense budgets and start thinking about the poor people who are financing these armies.

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Caz

Oct 05, 2013 12:46pm

Pakistan cannot afford it.

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ravi

Oct 05, 2013 12:47pm

Mr. Sherif.. Its a joke. Is't it ? You are in military race with your mother country, from the day your country was formed.

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unbelievable

Oct 05, 2013 01:32pm

Sharif has no control over the military and it's unlikely he has any control over what they buy or how much they spend. As such - how does he know whether Pakistan is in a "race" or not?

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Jimmy Nay Socha

Oct 05, 2013 02:31pm

main nay socha, we have had an arms race with India for long. How about a foot race now?

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Ravi Singh

Oct 05, 2013 03:42pm

how about......"Bhale ghas ki roti khayenge par bomb jarur banayenge"---ZA Bhutto......pakistan is not in arms race not because...it has intention to do so...but because it's not capable of that!!!!!Who's he fooling????

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Saleem Hatoum

Oct 05, 2013 06:59pm

@Jimmy Nay Socha: Foot race we will loose

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unbelievable

Oct 05, 2013 09:43pm

@Caz: True - but more importantly no country has ever initiated a war against Pakistan so there is no need for an arms build up.

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aqabdulaziz

Oct 05, 2013 10:00pm

Nobody can defeat Pakistan in making most number of chapati in one day. Pakistan is the world champion of chapatis.