ISLAMABAD, June 18: President Pervez Musharraf reiterated on Monday that Pakistan’s policy was characterized by restraint and responsibility.

“Despite provocations, we have demonstrated this over the last few months. We do not want war, we are for peaceful resolution of all disputes, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir,” the president said while addressing scientists and engineers at a dinner hosted by him on the development of defence deterrence programme.

But, he added: “We have also said that if war is thrust on us, we will defend ourselves with all our might. Let there be no ambiguity on this.”

The president said: “By testing, with outstanding success, the delivery systems of our strategic capability, these men validated the reliability, accuracy and the deterrence value of Pakistan’s premier surface-to-surface ballistic missiles systems of the Hatf series, namely Ghauri, Ghaznavi and Abdali.

He said May carried a very special significance for Pakistan. “It was in May 1974 that India threw the nuclear gauntlet to Pakistan at Pokhran. It was in May 1998, on the 28th and 30th, that Pakistan was literally challenged into becoming the seventh nuclear power in the world. That was the month when Pakistan had chosen to restore the strategic balance in South Asia.”

The president said: “We made that choice, because in the aftermath of the Indian tests, we were being subjected to a language of aggression and threats. Our capability was being doubted and it was being said with arrogance that Pakistan’s nuclear bluff had been called.

He said that with one stroke Pakistan’s deterrence was complete and the strategic balance restored. “We need to ensure that the three basic ingredients of this deterrence — capability, credibility and resolve — never get compromised.”—APP