Maiden visit: Nukes central to our defence strategy, says army chief

ISLAMABAD: Army chief General Raheel Sharif said on Friday that Pakistan’s nuclear programme occupies a ‘central place’ for the country’s defence. During his visit to the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which controls Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programme, Gen Raheel expressed satisfaction over the safety and security of the nuclear assets. This was his first visit to the SPD since he assumed the office of the Chief of Army Staff in November last year. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Gen Raheel was given a detailed briefing by SPD Director General Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai on the strategic programme. The army chief expressed his satisfaction over the robust nuclear command and control structure and all the security controls related to the strategic assets of the country. Gen Raheel’s remarks come after a report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) appreciated the steps Pakistan had taken to safeguard its nuclear programme. The study indicated that Pakistan had shown the most improvement recently among nine nuclear-armed states through a series of steps to update nuclear security regulations and to implement best practices. NTI’s 2014 Nuclear Materials Security Index ranked Pakistan 22nd in terms of nuclear safety, one rank above India. The latter is 23rd out of 25 countries with weapons-usable nuclear materials in the world while China is placed 20th on the index. The NTI study predicts further improvement in Pakistan’s regulations for protection and threat prevention. In the 2014 NTI Index, the scores of the nine nuclear-armed states remained mostly static, with some states’ scores increasing or decreasing by a single point. “Pakistan was a notable exception, with its score increasing by three points,” the NTI Index acknowledged in its latest assessment. “Pakistan, which improved its score by three points compared with 2012, demonstrated the largest improvement of any nuclear-armed state.” Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2014.