Minister Advocates Indigenous Missile Defense
Islamabad PTV Television Network
1300
GMT 4 Oct 95
[FBIS Transcribed Text] Foreign Minister Sardar Asif
Ahmad Ali has said Pakistan will develop its own indigenous
defense against India's Prithvi and other missiles. He said
we will have to defend ourselves and match their
capabilities with our own while remaining within the
framework of the Missile Technology Control Regime. He was
talking informally to newsmen in Washington at a reception
hosted for him by Ambassador Maleha Lodhi. Referring to the
development and deployment of ballistic missile systems by
India, Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali said it had created a security
concern within the region. The world should take notice of
these developments.
The foreign minister said India should realize that no
amount of repression or use of brute force could keep the
Kashmiri people subjugated for long. He said Indian plans to
hold elections in held Kashmir would backfire because of
rigging as had been the case in the past. The people of
Kashmir or the world would never accept such a farce.
Answering a question, the foreign minister said Pakistan
has always welcomed the idea of a third party mediation to
resolve the Kashmir dispute. In the past, issues like Rann
of Kutch and the water dispute were resolved by India and
Pakistan through third party mediation.
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