Islamabad, January 24, 2017: Senator Sehar Kamran (TI) praised Pakistani scientists and engineers and congratulated them on the achievement of a new, historic milestone – the successful test of ‘Ababeel’, a ballistic missile with the range of 2200 kilometers. The Senator said it is crucial for Pakistan to sustain effective deterrence for the preservation of strategic balance in the region, particularly to counter belligerent Indian developments like the Ballistic Missile Defence, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers, as well as their various, belligerent war-fighting ‘strategies’ under the umbrella of nuclear weapons. She highlighted that as with the nuclearization of South Asia in 1974, India now sought to nuclearize the Indian Ocean as well, and it was irrational not to expect Pakistan to strengthen its national defenses in response to such activities.
Senator Kamran commented that by introducing the BMD system in the region, India’s sense of security in its abilities has increased, increasing with it a tendency to ‘pre-empt’, seeking limited spaces for a conventional war against Pakistan. This is not only an irrational and irresponsible notion, but also increases the possibility of an escalation between the two nuclear neighbours. Furthermore, she stated that such Indian aggression towards Pakistan has escalated in light of their failure to access the NSG unimpeded; even their entry into the MTCR did not discourage the test of BrahMos (with a range of 600 km). She said that such behavior was an impediment to regional deterrence stability. By successfully conducting this test of the Ababeel Ballistic Missile, and thereby attaining Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) capability, Pakistan has plugged the gap, she said. The Senator highlighted that this is also significant because MIRVs missiles have the capability to hit multiple targets with multiple warheads through a single missile, which essentially renders BMD systems of little use.
Speaking further on the credibility of the MIRVs capability, the Senator stated that this missile is not for fighting wars, but ensuring that any external threats understand that any unacceptable or belligerent actions will be met proportionately, with potentially undesirable consequences. In other words, its purpose is to strengthen Pakistan’s Full Spectrum Deterrence against Indian ambitions only. She said Pakistan is a peace-loving country and wants to maintain friendly relations with all states in the region. However, the aggressive developments at our eastern border have compelled us to take necessary countermeasures. Senator Kamran also said that Pakistan desires and promotes arms control and disarmament measures in the region, and in this regard, has also offered bilateral control measures several times, including constraints on a missile race. It is India that is not ready to accept any proposal for arms control, but rather is building an enormous stockpile of advance war machineries – canister-based missiles like the Agni-V have reduced launch times from half a day to half an hour – as well as apparently endorsing the dangerous doctrine of ‘Cold Start’, she added.