Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Chairperson Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Sherry Rehman on Wednesday raised urgent issues including recent events that may impact Pakistan’s sovereign concerns.
She said that the “Indian missile crash in Pakistan is an extremely dangerous indicator of multiple crises that could have been precipitated to set off unimaginable consequences. An escalation of hostilities between two powerful, nuclearized countries must be avoided at all costs, especially in the absence of a framework for scaling down.
There is no current example in the world of such a risk-laden environment where two nuclear powers who have had four wars between them are also direct neighbors. It is because of our turbulent history that the severity of this so – called ‘mistake’ cannot go unnoticed by Pakistan and the international community. It is of paramount importance to note that this ‘technical glitch’ did not occur in disputed territory rather 500 km from Islamabad in Mian Channu. ”
“There are a series of procedures in place for testing, even if we are to accept this weak explanation that it was a missile that went off its charted course, why did it not self-destruct? The BrahMos mini supersonic is a missile which could have been “accidentally” armed with a warhead; and much like all such category of missiles they are programmed to self-destruct when they go off trajectory.”
“The incident calls into question why India, a country that is ranked 3rd highest in Military spending ($72.9 billion per year) just after the US and China, could let a mishap of such enormous magnitude “slip” through during a ‘routine check’. To many of us it seems that this was a message from India to Pakistan’; when taken into account past behavior the international community’s silence is disappointing. It causes us to question would this be similarly received by the world had it been Pakistan launching its missiles at India, especially accidentally. “
