Prevez Musharraf

Islamabad, Feb. 21: President Pervez Musharraf today handed over the indigenously developed Hatf-3 missile to the army strategic force command.

A solid fuel, short range missile, Hatf-3, which has a range of 290 ks had been first test-fired in 2002 and later in 2003.

The system now forms an integral component of Pakistan’s operational deterrence system which also include the Shaheen missile series and the Ghauri intermediate range missiles.

Musharraf had earlier this month announced that an intermediate range ballistic solid fuel missile, Shaheen-2, would also be ready for a testing soon.

Pakistan has been testing different versions of short and medium range delivery systems since April 1998 when it tested the Ghauri-1 intermediate range missile.

Addressing military officials, Musharraf ruled out any compromise on Pakistan’s nuclear programme and said it was here to stay “being a vital national security interest.”

“Far from misplaced notions of a roll back, we will continue to develop our capability in line with our minimum deterrence needs,” he declared.

He urged the nation to come out of the mindset of the 1980s when the nuclear programme was in its infancy and could be threatened with roll back.

“Today, Pakistan is an acknowledged and established nuclear power,” Musharraf said.

Emphasising on the need to further enhance security by drawing appropriate lessons from unfortunate events of proliferation in the past, the Pakistan President said that since the establishment of institutionalised command and control system in the last four years, adequate checks and balances had been put in place to prevent the recurrence of such lapses.

He said additional restructuring was being undertaken to further modernise the security system around the country’s strategic assets.

“Pakistan fully shares international concerns on proliferation and reiterates its resolve to ensure that there will never be any type of proliferation from its soil,” Musharraf assured.

He said what unfortunately happened in from1989 to 1999 were individual actions based on personal greed and gross misuse of autonomy and authority.

“It was a betrayal of the nation’s trust… it was compounded by an ineffective and inefficient security system and an absence of institutionalised oversight”.

He, however, assured the world that the network had been uprooted within Pakistan.