On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that there was “no justification” for the recent sanctions imposed by the United States on four Pakistani companies for their alleged involvement in the nation’s ballistic missile program.
“The sanctions imposed on our National Development Complex and other entities have no justification,” the premier stated while speaking at a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad.
“Having an aggressive nuclear system is not at all what Pakistan intends to have. Nothing else, it is entirely for Pakistan’s defense,” he continued.
Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz, is for self-defense “if God forbid there is aggression against Pakistan.”
The prime minister stated that the missile program was the country’s, not his or any of the cabinet members’, and that the FO had provided a “comprehensive response.”
The premier declared that the nation was unified on the issue and that “it’s dearer to them (the public) than their own hearts and there will be no compromise.”
The United States announced last week that it was enacting new sanctions against Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, focusing on four organizations it claimed were involved in the distribution or proliferation of these weapons.
The FO has responded to the penalties by calling them “biased” and “endangering regional and international peace.”
Later, Pakistan was charged by Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer of creating long-range ballistic missiles that would one day enable it to attack targets “well beyond South Asia, including in the United States.”
When questioned about the US sanctions on Pakistan, Pentagon press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder exercised care and declined to criticize the country directly, saying that the US valued Pakistan as a regional partner and had previously “worked closely” with it on counterterrorism measures.
The FO had responded to Finer’s assertions that Pakistan may attack the US by calling them “unfounded, [and] devoid of rationality and sense of history.”
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