Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday categorically ruled out any compromise on the country’s nuclear programme amid sanctions by the United States owing to Washington’s concerns regarding Islamabad’s strategic capabilities.
Speaking at a federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday in Islamabad, PM Shehbaz said: “There is no justification for the sanctions imposed on us [….] There will be no compromise on Pakistan’s nuclear programme”.
His remarks come as President Joe Biden’s administration, last week, announced imposing additional sanctions related to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme, targeting four entities that it said were contributing to the proliferation or delivery of such weapons.
The move warranted a strong reaction from the Foreign Office, which termed the move “biased” and warned that it could have dangerous implications for the strategic stability of the region and beyond.
The sanctions, pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13382, were later deliberated on US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer who said that Pakistan was developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets outside of South Asia, including the US.
Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Finer remarked that Islamabad’s conduct raised “real questions” about its intentions.
The remarks were once again responded to by the FO which called them “perplexing as well as illogical”.
Touching upon the issue a day earlier while speaking to Geo News, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch noted that US sanctions on Pakistan’s missile programme were unwarranted and detrimental to bilateral relations.
“A superpower should neither experience discomfort nor view a threat from Pakistan’s missile programme,” she said while stressing that the country’s defence programmes — both nuclear and missile — were solely for the country’s security interests.
The spokesperson’s remarks echo PM Shehbaz’s statement today where he underscored that Pakistan’s nuclear capability was only meant for its defence.
