ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the National Command Authority retired Lt Gen Mazhar Jamil has said Pakistan’s full spectrum deterrence capability ensured strategic stability in the region despite India’s destabilising actions and misadventures.

He was speaking at the launch of a book titled ‘Problems and Prospects of the Non-Proliferation Regime: Pakistani Perspectives’ at the Air University. The book edited by Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema has been published by a local think tank, Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), a media statement released on Friday said.

Referring to the threat posed by India and its hegemonic designs, Gen Jamil said security concerns compelled Pakistan to pursue the full spectrum deterrence (FSD) capability.

FSD concept entails a full range of responses to threats at sub-conventional to strategic levels through a combination of conventional and strategic forces.

“Pakistan as a responsible country has always shown restraint and responded only to India’s destabilising actions and there is a legitimate security interest in restoring the stability,” he maintained.

The general, who previously headed Strategic Plans Division, said Pakistan, despite the challenges confronted by it, “engaged responsibly” with the global arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation structures and “contributed positively” to the non-proliferation regime.

He noted that though Pakistan was not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty it had strongly adhered to the principles of non-proliferation and worked for creating an environment for nuclear disarmament.

Gen Jamil criticised the global non-proliferation regime for being politicised and increasingly discriminatory.

“The selective application of its rules has not only weakened the non-proliferation regime and (undermined) regional strategic stability, but has also posed threat to the global security,” the NCA adviser observed while referring to the waiver given to India in 2008 by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, allowing it to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries.

Quoting excerpts from the book, he said today India had the fastest growing nuclear programme with eight reactors outside IAEA safeguards. This, he feared, would affect the strategic stability in South Asia.

Gen Jamil, therefore, emphasised that a multilateral, non-discriminatory regime that improved its institutional mechanisms was not only needed for “building peaceful global environment”, but also for bringing “much needed stability to South Asia”.

Air University Vice Chancellor Javaid Ahmed, while chairing one of the sessions, said the international community had failed to create consensus on non-proliferation.

The book’s editor and SVI Executive Director Zafar Iqbal Cheema said earlier there was no book containing Pakistani perspectives on non-proliferation regime. The book published by SVI will fill the gap existing in the available literature, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2021