[center]<b>The Last Nail in the Coffin of Pakistani H & D <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> </b>[/center]
[center]<b>Pakistan 'cannot afford nuclear arms race with India' <!--emo&
tupid--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pakee.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pakee.gif' /><!--endemo--> </b>[/center]<b>Pakistan's financial constraints mean it can only maintain a strategy of "minimum deterrence" in its nuclear weapons and missile programmes and will not enter an arms race with India or any other country, senior defence planners said.
Responding to concerns over rising defence spending, they said Pakistan had learned from the experience of the Soviet Union, which many believe collapsed because of its expensive arms race with the US. "We are only going to maintain a minimum deterrence. We are aware of our resource constraint," a senior defence official said.
Recently announced plans to buy conventional arms worth $7bn-9bn over the next five years have prompted analysts to warn of potential dangers for the Pakistani economy, which has only begun to recover in the past two years. Military spending is set to rise 11 per cent to Rps250bn ($4.2bn, â¬3.3bn, £2.3bn) a year.</b>
According to the defence official, spending on nuclear weapons and missiles programmes has averaged only 2.3 per cent of total military spending over the past 35 years.
Without elaborating on a target for the number of nuclear warheads and missiles to be developed, he said "financial constraints" were built into future plans and that "minimum deterrence rather than missile-for-missile or bomb-for-bomb is our goal".
Pakistan's strategic weapons programme is focused mainly on India, which introduced nuclear weapons to south Asia with its maiden tests in 1974. Pakistan carried out its first tests in 1998. Another senior official, responsible for the nuclear establishment, said the average cost of missile production was lower than that incurred by the US or the Soviet Union, as "India and Pakistan are neighbours and we do not have to invest in systems requiring additional flying time over thousands of miles".
On conventional military spending, a senior finance ministry official said the weapons purchase plan was based on repayments over "up to a 15-year period, which is affordable". Pakistan intends to buy advanced fighter aircraft and frigates from China, an airborne early warning system from Sweden, new fighter aircraft from the US and used frigates in service with the Greek navy.
Pakistan's nuclear programme has been under international scrutiny since revelations in 2004 that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the country's top nuclear scientist, traded know-how and technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea. Hasan Askari Rizvi, a prominent analyst on defence affairs said: "As long as you don't have civilian scrutiny of military affairs, military spending will remain controversial. Pakistan is run by the military; civilian politicians are a subservient force."
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->