'India tries to alter the regional strategic landscape'

Pakistan army's Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat on Friday alleged that India was attempting to alter the regional strategic landscape through an unprecedented military build-up.

Hayat was speaking at a book launch event hosted by Center for International Strategic Studies Islamabad (CISS).

The CISS said in a statement that General Hayat reviewed the regional security situation and listed the threats faced by Pakistan especially in the context of latest developments, including the first deterrence patrol by Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant, Indo-Russian nuclear deal for S-400 air defense missile systems and India's shifting doctrinal posture.

"An aggressive hybrid war had also been imposed on Pakistan," he alleged.

"Pakistan was determined to maintain credible minimum deterrence against full spectrum of evolving threats while exercising restraint and responsibility in order to preserve regional peace and stability," he said.

Besides, India's destabilising actions, the world powers providing high-tech military hardware and technologies were also aggravating regional and global security, he claimed.

Hayat also claimed that exceptional access to modern technology granted to India was undermining strategic stability.

"We are fully alive to these challenges. We will do what it minimally takes to restore the strategic balance in the region," he said.

He reminded about Pakistani proposal for a 'Strategic Restraint Regime'.

About the challenge of hybrid war, Hayat said that it would be dealt with through "a whole of the nation approach".

He additionally called for a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment for Pakistan's application for membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Executive Director CISS Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi said South Asia was a crisis-prone region due to unresolved disputes between India and Pakistan.

These issues have resulted in trust deficit and lack of communication between the two countries, he said.