Pakistan to meet all needs of army: Sartaj

LAHORE: Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that Pakistan is not engaged in an arms race with India.However, the country knows how to meet its defence needs in order to strike a balance in warfare technology and maintain peace in the region.
“Imbalance in conventional or non-conventional weaponry is not good for peace, so Pakistan will meet all requirements of its army to keep the Indian spending on defence in equilibrium,” Sartaj said in reply to a query about the Indian war hysteria and the increase in its annual defence spending by eight percent, announced by New Delhi a day earlier.
He was talking to reporters after the launch of the Shahid Javed Burki Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) here on Sunday.About the Indian foreign secretary’s Pakistan visit, Sartaj said New Delhi had suspended the talks and the Composite Dialogue process, and Pakistan had made it clear that only India would resume it as it had halted it. He welcomed the Indian move to resume it by announcing its foreign secretary’s visit to Pakistan.
However, Sartaj refused to comment on the expected outcome of the Indian foreign secretary visit to Pakistan. “It is impossible for me to tell you about the outcome of the Indian foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan in the next week.”
However, he hoped that chances of a decision on resumption of the Composite Dialogue were bright in the upcoming or the follow-up meeting. Normalisation of relations is urgently needed to reduce the tension on the Line of Control, he added.
But all kinds of issues could not be raised in the talks as various sectors would be part of the dialogue, Sartaj said, adding that Pakistan could not move forward without resolving the Kashmir issue. “Kashmir is the top priority for Pakistan and it will remain so for all times,” he said.
About the Taliban issue, Sartaj said after reaching a consensus on an operation, there was no distinction between good or bad Taliban. The government and military are on the same page to eradicate the menace of terrorism from Pakistan.
About an improvement in relations with Afghanistan, he said the two countries were coordinating with each other to combat terrorism and with the Taliban at political, security, military and intelligence agencies levels.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have launched operations against the Taliban in their respective territories to eradicate terrorism and they had committed that their respective soils would not be used against each other. “The continuation of Operation Zarb-e-Azb shows Pakistan’s commitment to it,” he added.
About the army’s control over foreign policy affairs, the adviser dispelled the impression and stressed that theimplementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) could not be achieved without due support of the armed forces. So, the army, as an important institution of Pakistan, was supporting the government in evolvingthe foreign and security policies. He said the government and the army were jointly evolving the security policy.
Earlier, speaking at the launching ceremony, Sartaj Aziz said the BIPP would set up a series of centres of excellence and the first one would be set up as the Dr Afaf Centre for Science. Dr Afaf was a close companion of Dr Abdus Salam.
Dar also appreciated the idea of placing the BIPP at the NetSol Technologies, saying that science and technology were going to play a major role in future.Sartaj said it was a strange coincidence that the West had high stakes in the region as and when the military regimes ruled the country.
Rashid Amjad, Vice-Chairman, Shahid Javed Burki Institute of Public Policy, in his welcome address, said the institute had already published seven annual reports on the state of economy of Pakistan.
Naming the institute after Shahid Javed Burki is an endeavour to professionalise the policy process, transfer the institute into substantial paradigm to ensure transformative change in the life of people of Pakistan. He said the focus of the BIPP would be on social, political, economic and environmental issues and to achieve synergy in research, think tank, learning and training and management.
Dr Zubair Khan, former federal minister, recalled his long association with Shahid Javed Burki and said he was proud of being a part of a team starting a number of initiatives on public policy. He said he was in the cabinet some 20 years back and feels sorry to note that the country was still facing similar challenges with minor improvement on some fronts.
At the end, Chairman Shahid Javed Burki said the purpose of his effort was to bring about some change and bring down the disappointment level among the people of Pakistan. He said Pakistan had neither a government nor money to run the state in 1947, but still the locals accommodated 24 million migrants. He said the population size had increased seven times since 1947, but the poverty level had risen only twice during this period.