ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief and former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday strongly reacted to a statement made by US President Joe Biden and put facts straight on security and safety of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
His remarks came after the US president on Thursday said that Pakistan may be “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” as the country has “nuclear weapons without any cohesion”.
According to the ousted premier, who has long alleged a US conspiracy behind his government’s removal, the ex-premier questioned what information led Biden to reach “this unwarranted conclusion”, adding that as prime minister, he knew that Pakistan had “one of the most secure nuclear command and control systems” in the world.
He also asked “when has Pakistan shown aggression, especially post-nuclearisation” unlike the “US which has been involved in wars across the world”.
He asserted that Biden’s statement also showed the “failure” of the incumbent government’s claims of a “reset” in relations with the US.
“Is this the “reset”? This government has broken all records for incompetence,” Imran argued.
He maintained that his “greatest worry” – apart from the government leading the country to economic ruin and giving a license to white-collar criminals to plunder the country – was that they would also completely comprise Pakistan’s national security.
PTI Secretary General Asad Umar questioned if Biden was talking about the US when he spoke of a nuclear country without cohesion.
“After all his party is going after Donald Trump for trying to subvert the constitution and steal the last presidential election,” he added.
Asad maintained that countries in “glass houses” should think before “throwing stones at others”.
PTI leader and former Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi posted a tweet referring to the NTI Nuclear Security Index, saying that Pakistan is most improved state in terms of nuclear security.
“It seems @POTUS is ill-informed or is ill-advised to cast doubts on Pakistan’s nukes. Pakistan improving its overall score by 7 points. Biden needs to acknowledge it,” he asserted.
According to @NTI_WMD #Pakistan is most improved state in terms of nuclear security. It seems @POTUS is ill-informed or is ill-advised to cast doubts on Pakistan’s nukes. Pakistan improving its overall score by 7 points. Biden needs to acknowledge ithttps://t.co/I326zAxe7X
— Shehryar Afridi (@ShehryarAfridi1) October 15, 2022
PTI leader and former information minister Chaudhry Fawad said that it seemed “as if President Biden wants to distract people from his declining reputation among the Americans” by making statements about Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Fawad added that the Pakistani government may be weak but the Pakistani people were not.
Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari demanded that the US president apologises to the Pakistani nation for his “nasty remarks”, which she claimed came because his “regime change conspiracy is faltering”.
“A nuclear US is a threat for [the] world because you have no control over your nukes. B52 bomber takes off with 6 live nukes 2007 and no one knows for hours!” she added.
She called the US an “irresponsible superpower with nukes” with a proclivity “to interfere globally with regime change agendas alongside militarising the oceans”.
She highlighted that the US was responsible for custodial torture in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram.
“Even your own people are not safe with gunmen going on killing sprees,” she added, asking Biden to “have some shame”.
