Pak should expedite missile programme, says Rafiq Tarar

“Ghauri, Ghaznavi, Babri and Abdali missiles should be developed to make the defence of Pakistan impregnable, and the country should ignore any amount of pressure,” declared Tarar, who is known for his fundamentalist ideas.

Underlining the need for Muslim unity, he said, “We should rekindle the concept of Islamic Ummah (world). We should keep in view the collective interests and resources of the Islamic world while making any future planning.”

Tarar also suggested setting up of a commissionto draw up strategy to enhance cooperation among the Muslim world in political and economic fields.

He said that Pakistan should take lead in this future plan.

Tarar’s advice for further expediting the missile programme comes barely a fortnight after Pakistan announced the successful test firing of its intermediate range Ghauri missile on April 6, which has the capability of delivering nuclear warhead up to a range of 1,500 kms.

Pakistan’s leading nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has already announced that a 2,000 kms range Ghaznavi missile is in the offing and now Tarar’s comments further confirm an imminent missile race in the sub-continent.

Tarar while emphasising the unity of the Muslim world, said that the Islam’s concept of nation is beyond the physical boundaries, colour, cast and creed and “we need to revive it.”

He said that the proposed commission should look into the problems of the Muslim countries and also tell them how to solve them and added that the commission shouldprotect the economic and political interest of the countries.

Ahsan Iqbal, a minister in Nawaz Sharif’s Cabinet and chief co-ordinator of Pakistan Programme 2010, said that in the past 50 years, Pakistan has made great achievements as, “We began our journey from scratch and now we have Kahuta plan (Pakistan’s best known nuclear facility) and Ghauri missile.”