ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday ruled out any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, saying that it supported objectives of non-proliferation as well as nuclear safety and security.

“As a responsible nuclear state, Pakistan is fully aware of its responsibilities. Pakis­tan’s nuclear progarmme is purely for its own legitimate self-defence and maintenance of a credible minimum deterrence,” Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said at a press briefing here.

He said an entirely baseless and mischievous campaign was being carried out in the international media regarding Pakistan’s nuclear programme. “The Sunday Times story appe­ars to be part of that malevolent campaign and is utterly unfounded,” he remarked.

The spokesman said Pakis­tan had a robust command and control structure and com­prehensive export controls.

The Sunday Times of Lon­don had reported that the Saudis had taken the ‘strategic decision’ to acquire ‘off-the-shelf’ atomic weapons from Pakistan,” citing un­named American officials.

FO says US has not conveyed concerns over the ‘fake degree’ scam

He said Pakistan remained in close contact with Saudi Arabia regarding the Yemen crisis. “On April 22, we welcomed the end of air campaign in Yemen by Saudi Arabia. We also welcomed the five-day humanitarian pause from May 12 to 17. We have brotherly relations with the people of Yemen and have announced one million US dollars for provision of humanitarian assistance to them,” he said.

To another question, he said he had not seen the reports of Houthis having taken over two Saudi cities. But, he recalled that the adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs had recently expressed concern at shelling from Yemen on Saudi city of Najran where about 15,000 Pakistanis lived.

Fake degree scam: The spokesman replied in the negative when asked if the US had conveyed its concerns about a New York Times report in which Pakis­tani IT enterprise Axact had been accused of having been involved in fake degree business. “No country, including the United States, has conveyed their concerns to Pakistan. Every­one is looking forward to the outcome of investigations,” he added.

The investi­gations, he said, were going on and it was not appropriate for him to say anything at this stage.

Asked to assess the policies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards Pakis­tan as he is completing his first year in office, he said Pakistan was pursuing a policy of good relations with all its neighbouring countries, including India.

He desisted from commenting on reports that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked the Foreign Office to send a dossier regarding RAW’s involvement in Pakistan to India, saying that the statements already made were self-explanatory.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2015

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