Option to use nukes always available: Kh Asif

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif has said that nuclear weapons are not showpieces and the option to use them is always available. He said that the government would control the energy crisis by 2017 but no one could say that loadshedding would completely end.
Talking to Salim Safi in the Geo News programme, ‘Jirga’, the minister said there was no threat of an imminent war from India but the war threat was permanent. He said Pakistan was fully capable of defending its territories.
In case of a war with India, the option to use nuclear weapons was always available, he said and added, “We should pray that the situation does not go to the extent where we have to use nuclear weapons.” However, if such a situation was created, the Pakistan Army was fully capable of using nuclear weapons.
He said that the government had presented to the world forums the evidence of Indian support to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatists. He said if there was evidence of connection between the MQM and India, it would also be presented to the world forums.
He said the PTI did not end its sit-in on the Yemen issue as they wanted to end the sit-in and come back to the assembly. He said resignations of the PTI members were still with the NA speaker. He disagreed to the logic 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.
He said the MP who remained absent from assemblyproceedings for 40 days had his membership cancelled. He said the PTI members remained absent from the assembly for months, adding that a pragmatist approach was adopted to give them way back into the NA.
He said the PTI members were in contact with the government through different channels to come back to the assembly. He said their return was not part of any deal between the government and the PTI.
He said the PTI members had not only received their salaries but they continued to have all perks and privileges during the days of sit-ins. He said all through his 25 years in politics, he had never seen people so devoid of ethics and self-respect as the PTI members.
He said Javed Hashmi maintained his self-respect and resigned. He said his statement shaming the PTI was for Imran Khan calling the assembly fake. He said the umpire’s finger did not hint at the Almighty but at somebody else.
He said Gen (retd) Shuja Pasha was the ideological guru of the PTI. He said Gen Pasha intervened in politics being the ISI chief and later Gen Zaheerul Islam and some other ISI officials also had sympathies with the sit-in participants.
He said everybody was fighting their own fights against the government during the sit-in days. “At that time, ISI was angry with the government. Secret institutions helped the sit-ins,” he said.
He said no proposal for accountability of those who were behind the sit-ins was under consideration. He said an investigation into the matter, however, should be conducted. He said the present army leadership was disassociated with politics completely and if the country had this leadership earlier, it would have been without many crises it was facing at present.
He said Shahbaz Sharif’s claim of ending loadshedding in six months was wrong and discussion about the energy crisis should always be cautious. He said K-Electric was basically responsible for the heatwave deaths in Karachi but the governments could not be excused.
He said K-Electric owed many institutions billions of rupees. He said the PTI leadership should pay DJ Butt Rs80 million. He said if Butt lodged a case against Imran Khan, the government would make sure that Butt was given justice.
He said he tried to do justice with his both ministries. He said he never visited Waziristan or eastern or western frontiers during the military operation. He said Taliban and India were threat to “our existence”. He said the government should accept responsibility for slackness in implementing the National Action Plan (NAP). He said he was not in direct contact with Ch Nisar but their ministries had coordination. He said they were not opposed to Necta.