‘Why is Pakistan not conducting any missile tests?’

ISLAMABAD - While “enemy India” has conducted three missile tests within this year alone — the latest being of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile, Pakistan has not conducted any in the last three years, an editorial in a Pakistani paper wondered Tuesday.

“We seem to have neglected our defence scientists and for the last three years, our government seems to have been oblivious to the country’s defence needs. There is no attention to national security,” the editorial in the Nawa-i-Waqt said.

“We conducted our last missile test about three years ago. Where have our defence scientists and missile technology experts gone since then,” it asked.

The editorial also noted that India is racing ahead with huge arms purchases from the US, Russia and other countries including a nuclear submarine and plans to purchase over 100 fighter planes. “Pakistan was content with the three F-16s it received from the US, while the US offered the more advanced F-19 to India,” the editorial noted.

“Feeling secure with our nuclear arsenal, we have been neglecting other weapons for the last three years while we need to keep some kind of parity with India, which is going on spending huge sums on stockpiling arms all this while,” it said.

Citing India’s BrahMos, the Urdu daily said the cruise missile, with a range of 290 km, can travel at thrice the speed of sound, and asked Pakistan’s government and defence ministry to explain what measures they have undertaken to counter it.

“If not, they should strive to find something to tackle this threat and India’s fighter planes. The people of this country will be willing to give any sacrifice towards this endeavour,” the editorial said.

“The government should have taken the occasion of Defence of Pakistan Day (celebrated Sep 6 in commemoration of the successful defence of Lahore in the 1965 India-Pakistan War) to spell out their designs for the security of the country and its people but they failed to do so. It seems the emotion of Sep 6 no longer motivates them,” it said.

“At a time when our enemy has made no attempt to conceal his nefarious designs against our country, it is no time for the government to sit supine but to make all efforts to scale up the country’s security so that we can give a fitting rebuff to any act of aggression against us,” it said.