Islamabad (Pakistan): After Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the country's nuclear programme was aimed at deterrence, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) alleged that he was brought to power to fulfil the 'foreign agenda' of rolling back the nuclear programme. In an interview with a US journalist, Imran Khan said that Pakistan's nuclear programme has "only one purpose" -- deterrence. "It's not an offensive thing," he said, reported Dawn.
Responding to the remarks, Ahsan Iqbal, the PML-N's party's secretary-general in the National Assembly, on Tuesday said: "Who has given the right to this prime minister to say that Pakistan's nuclear programme is negotiable?" "The cat is now out of the bag. Imran Khan has been brought (to power) to roll back Pakistan's nuclear programme. This is the agenda of the foreign donors," he stated, alleging that the purpose of giving the statement was to send a message that Pakistan was ready to roll back its deterrence.
"Pakistan's nuclear deterrence is non-negotiable," Iqbal declared.
Meanwhile, regarding Pakistan's federal budget, which has caused much chaos in the National Assembly, Iqbal warned that a new and "worst wave" of price hike would hit the nation after the passage of the finance bill and that the country was passing a "non-planned phase" due to "directionless policies" of the present government, Dawn reported.
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The PML-N leader regretted that while carrying out character assassination of the opposition, Imran Khan had started a "character assassination of Pakistan itself".
Slamming the premier for declaring Pakistan a country of "the corrupt and money launderers" in his speeches at international forums, he said that the country's ministers wanted to make the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects controversial through their statements.