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Dar rules out compromise on nuclear assets

 Pakistan has repudiated speculations it might restrict its nuclear arsenal in response to the latest US demand."We will not roll back our nuclear programme even if our debts swell to $100 trillion," Finance Minister Ishaq Dar declared in the Senate dismissing outright Western media reports that suggest Islamabad could barter its nuclear arsenal for dollars.
"We did not start this [nu-clear] programme to roll it back," Dar told lawmakers in the upper house of parliament. "This is a programme of our security, and it is a national responsibility to protect it," he added. "All political parties of Pakistan share the ownership of our nuclear programme.
"Briefing the House on the country's economy, he also made policy statement and referred to a 2008 article in Wall Street Journal head-lined 'Let's Buy Pakistan's Nukes' in which the author asked Western donors to agree on a $100 billion economic package in exchange for eliminating Pakistan's nuclear stockpile.
"This will never happen," Dar said emphatically. He mentioned another article which suggested the ever-ballooning debt may lead Pakistan to compromise on its national security assets. "Even if our debts swell to $100 billion or $100 trillion, we will not roll back our nuclear programme."Dar's emphatic statement came after US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Pakistan at this week's strategic dialogue to reduce its growing nuclear arsenal. Dar did not mention Kerry's statement but Senate Chairman Raza Rab-bani asked Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to brief the House on this issue along with others.
Sartaj would brief the House next Tuesday but Foreign Office has already issued a statement in which Sartaj has "impressed upon the United States not to contribute to strategic imbalance in South Asia by helping India. He emphasised that the convergences in the relationship outweigh the irritants."
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