Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman General Zubair Mahmood Hayat on Friday expressed grave concerns over the regional security situation and its direct threats to Pakistan, especially in the context of latest developments including the first deterrence patrol by Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant, Indo-Russian nuclear deal for S-400 air defense missile systems and India’s shifting doctrinal posture. He said that an aggressive hybrid war had been imposed on Pakistan.

The top military officer warned that India was attempting to alter the regional strategic landscape through an unprecedented military build-up. However, he pledged to ensure that strategic balance would be maintained in the region.

Pakistan’s top military officer Gen Zubair was speaking at a book launch ceremony hosted by Center for International Strategic Studies Islamabad (CISS). “We are fully alive to these challenges. We will do what it minimally takes to restore the strategic balance in the region,” he said.

He added, “Pakistan is determined to maintain credible minimum deterrence against full spectrum of evolving threats while exercising restraint and responsibility in order to preserve regional peace and stability.”

The CJCSC reminded the gathering about Pakistani proposal for a ‘strategic restraint regime’. “It is still waiting a positive response from our eastern neighbour,” he underlined.

About the challenge of hybrid war, Gen Zubair said it would be dealt with through a whole of the nation approach. He additionally called for a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment for Pakistan’s application for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The book titled Shaking Hands with Clenched Fists has been authored by Dr. Asma Shakir Khawaja, Assistant Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, National Defence University, Islamabad. The book looks at the Pakistan-India relationship in the context of the various Confidence Building Measures that the two neighbours have so far agreed to.

Besides India’s destabilising actions, he said, the world powers providing high-tech military hardware and technologies were also aggravating regional and global security. He noted that exceptional access to modern technology granted to India was undermining strategic stability.

CISS Ambassador executive director Ali Sarwar Naqvi said South Asia was a crisis prone region due to unresolved disputes between India and Pakistan. These issues, he said, have resulted in a trust deficit and lack of communication between the two countries. He said that most of the CBMs between Pakistan and India were developed after conflicts, be it in 1948, or after 1965 and 1971 wars. He stated that the Tashkent Declaration of 1966 and Simla Agreement of 1972 were two major CBMs between the two countries. Amb. Naqvi said that failure of some CBMs between Pakistan and India is due to the difference between their respective approaches towards the CBMs. He also stated that the clenched fists are on the Indian side.

Published in Daily Times, November  10^th 2018.