Days after criticising last week’s Indo-US defence agreement, Pakistan changed its tune saying there is no need to panic and reposing full confidence in its own capabilities.‘‘There is no need to panic,’’ Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri told reporters in Lahore yesterday.Last Friday, Kasuri had criticised the agreement, saying it would disrupt the balance of power in South Asia and lead to an arms race in the region. Yesterday he claimed that Pakistan had not protested to the US in the ‘‘larger perspective’’. Kasuri also said that Pakistan does not want an arms race with India but at the same time it would maintain a ‘‘minimum credible deterrence’’ to ensure its sovereignty.He, however, said that only the insane could think of an Indo-Pak nuclear war.Patriots worry PakISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Monday, it had conveyed its concerns to the United States over the ‘‘negative implications’’ of India’s proposed acquisition of sophisticated weapons systems such as the Patriot missile. ‘‘We have conveyed our concerns with regard to the negative implication of induction of such sophisticated equipment in the region,’’ Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said. ‘‘They will perpetrate an arms race into which Pakistan does not wish to enter,” he added.
