Pak dare: Can nuke India

Islamabad: Days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are going to meet on the sidelines of SCO summit, Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif has said that his country can use nuclear weapons against India in case of war.

“Nuclear weapons are not showpieces, and the option to use them is always available. At this time, there is no threat of a war with India but the war threat is permanent,” Asif said.

“We should pray that the situation does not go to the extent where we have to use nuclear weapons,” said Asif, adding, “However, if such a situation is created, the Pakistan Army can use nuclear weapons. Pakistan is fully capable of defending its territories.”

In a television interview, he said that the government had presented evidence to world forums of Indian support to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatists.

He said that if there was evidence of a connection between the MQM and India, that would also be presented to the world forums.

His comments come as Sharif is set to hold a meeting with Modi on July 10 in the Russian city of Ufa.

The foreign office confirmed that both the leaders will have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Ufa. Mr Sharif will lead the Pakistan delegation to the meeting of the heads of states council of the SCO in Ufa on July 9-10.

Asif said the resignations of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators were still with the National Assembly speaker. He disagreed that since the PTI had come back to the assembly, these resignations had become ineffective. He said he had asked the NA speaker many times to ask the PTI members one by one if they had tendered resignations or not.

The MP who remained absent from assembly proceedings for 40 days had his membership cancelled, he said.

He added that the PTI members remained absent from the assembly for months, and that a pragmatist approach was taken to allow them back to the NA.

The minister said the PTI members were in contact with the government through different channels to come back to the assembly. Their return was not part of any deal between the government and the PTI, according to Asif.

He raged that the PTI members had not only received their salaries, but continued to enjoy all perks and privileges during the days of sit-ins. He said that in his 25 years in politics, he had never seen people so devoid of ethics and self-respect as the PTI MPs.