By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD : Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday asserted there would be “no compromise” on the country’s nuclear and missile programmes as he responded to questions raised by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani.
Speaking during the Senate’s session, Dar said: “Let me assure you that “nobody is going to compromise anything on the nuclear or the missile program of Pakistan — no way.”
Senator Rabbani had raised some questions on the reasons behind the delay in the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which would offer a critical lifeline to tame a balance-of-payments crisis.
The PPP leader lamented that the Senate had “neither before nor today been taken into confidence on what are the conditionalities of the IMF”.
Terming the delay “absolutely out of the ordinary — extraordinary”, Senator Rabbani said: “The question arises […] if the delay is being made because of some sort of pressure to be exerted on Pakistan’s nuclear [programme].”
Responding to him, Dar assured of no compromise on Pakistan’s nuclear prowess and promised that the “moment the staff-level agreement and the EFFP (Extended Fund Facility programme) would be finalised […] it will be put up on the website of the finance ministry”.
He added: “Nobody has any right to tell Pakistan that what range of missiles it can have and what nuclear weapons it can have. We have to have our own deterrence.
“We represent the people of Pakistan […] and we have to guard our national interests”.
Responding to the questions raised on the delay, Dar said the delay was “not on the part of the government”. Indirectly blaming the PTI’s government that signed the agreement in 2019, he said that “it seems as if the arrangements of 2019 with the IMF has been a different and [a] new program”.
