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[DAWN] The Foreign Office (FO) during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad on Friday said that Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's recent 'no first use' statement on India's nuclear doctrine "amounts to nothing", according to a statement shared by the Press Information Department.FO Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said, "Pakistan believes the ambiguous 'no first use' declaration is not verifiable and amounts to nothing. It can't be a substitute for verifiable arms control and restraint measures proposed by Pakistan's standing offer of Strategic Restraint Regime."
The spokesman said that such a statement by the defence minister of a country that repeatedly and constantly heightens tension with an aggressive posture should be a matter of concern not just for countries of the region but also a threat to global peace and security.
The statement comes as an extraordinary plenary session of the NSG specially convened to discuss India's membership of the bloc concluded without the members reaching any consensus. India has been pushing for NSG membership before the end of 2016.
The NSG is a 48-nation club dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.
The group's membership has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty but India has refused to do so.