Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Sartaj Aziz, adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs, said on Tuesday that Pakistan would acquire F-16 aircraft from other countries if the United States does not give funds for this purpose.

Talking to the media after inaugurating a seminar on “Pakistan’s Non-proliferation Efforts and Strategic Export Control System”, Aziz said that Pakistan wanted the F-16 fighter jets from the US to give an impetus to its counterterrorism efforts. “Pakistan will buy F-16s from some other country if funding [from the US] is not arranged,” he said. Although the US has stopped funding for the fighter jets, he said, it was providing $265 million annually to Pakistan.

The statement by the adviser comes in the wake of State Department Spokesperson John Kirby’s remarks. Kirby said Pakistan should arrange funds for purchase of F-16 fighter jets on its own.

“Given Congressional objections, we have told the Pakistanis that they should put forward national funds for that purpose,” the US State Department spokesperson told reporters at the weekly press briefing.

Pakistan had reached an understanding with the US for the purchase of eight F-16 aircraft.

The adviser said that an Afghan Taliban delegation from Doha was in Islamabad. He said that all members of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group consisting of the US, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan maintained such contacts with the objective of revival of peace process in Afghanistan.

Aziz said the government had refused to hand over Shakil Afridi to the United States. Afridi helped the United States trace Osama bin Laden. “For the US he is a hero, but for Pakistan he is a criminal,” he said. A tribunal was reviewing Afridi’s case. He was also suspected of having links with terrorist organisations.

Aziz said that Pakistan was a peace loving country, which was forced to acquire nuclear deterrence due to threats to its security and integrity. He said that Pakistan’s reluctant entry into the nuclear club was well documented. He said that as a responsible state Pakistan remained fully committed to the objectives of non-proliferation and disarmament and shared the global concern that proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction posed a serious threat to international peace and security.

Aziz said that in 1974, when India conducted the first nuclear test, Pakistan gave several proposals to keep South Asia free of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, including simultaneous accession to the NPT, but none of its proposal was reciprocated. He said that Pakistan had always tried to fulfil its international obligations. “Pakistan is a state party to various international instruments, including CWC, BTWC, PTBT, CPPNM, IAEA Code of Conduct on Safety and Security of radioactive sources, and participates in the IAEA Incident and Trafficking Database (ITDB). Pakistan is strongly committed to the objective of nuclear security and has been proactively engaged with the international community to promote nuclear safety and security,” he said.

He said that Pakistan’s nuclear security paradigm had become effective and responsive to the entire range of threats over the years. He said the nuclear security regime in Pakistan was dynamic and it was being reviewed and updated regularly. He said that Pakistan’s nuclear security regime was based on a national legislative, regulatory and administrative framework. He said that nuclear security in Pakistan consisted of a robust command and control system led by the National Command Authority (NCA), a rigorous regulatory regime, comprehensive export controls and international cooperation. He said, “We follow the principle of multi-layered defence to prevent and effectively respond to the entire spectrum of threats.”

The national security adviser said that South Asia’s strategic stability had been negatively impacted by the policies that overrode the long established principles and norms and were guided by a state’s strategic and commercial considerations. He said the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and the subsequent discriminatory waiver granted to India by the NSG allowed India to exponentially increase its fissile material stocks with grave implications for the strategic stability in the region.