Nuclear weapons are not an aggressive option and you cannot use them, says former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

In an interview to Russia Today (RT), Zardari said: “You can develop it, you can have it, you can display a photograph of it but nuclear weapons are no joke.”

The former president doesn’t think there is any possibility of a nuclear clash between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issue.

Explaining the current tension in bilateral ties, Zardari said that it all revolves around the situation in Kashmir.

“Look at it from the fact that how many Kashmiris are residing in Pakistan. In fact, our current prime minister is also a Kashmiri.”

The former president urged that “it’s about time for the world to stop pointing fingers at each other and sit and think to see how we can get rid of this menace”.

Editorial: Zardari: no lessons learnt

Over the issue of Panama papers, which mentioned the names of prime minister’s family members, Zardari said that his party has criticised it.

When asked that PTI chief Imran Khan levels corruption charges on you as well, Zardari said that Imran’s government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has given Rs30 million to an institution associated with the Taliban.

Talking about the US-controlled drone strikes inside Pakistani territory, Zardari said that during his tenure he repeatedly asked for the drone technology to be handed over to Pakistan in order to achieve maximum results.

“The effect is different if we are using it instead of the US. Currently we are using F-16s to bomb terrorist hideouts but we are short on those jets too.”

It won’t make much of a difference, to US or any other country opposing it, if we are given an eight or so more fighter jets, Zardari maintained.

When asked to comment on the presence of Osama bin Laden near the Pakistan Military Academy, he said that Osama wasn’t living across the academy. “He was living in Abbottabad city, it just like living any other big city where you can’t just check every other house.”

“We don’t have as many intelligence resources as United States, still they couldn’t catch him [Osama] in Afghanistan where they carried out a massive manhunt. Then how come they expect us to locate him in a place where he slipped in despite all available US intelligence,” said the former president.

Commenting on the exit of Britain from European Union and how this development will affect Pakistan, Zardari said “it is a big issue as lots of things have to be tied up and trade deals to be re-negotiated”.

He was of the opinion that Brexit will definitely have an impact on Pakistan and other trading partners, but “let’s see how it settles, how the issue unfolds”.