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Pakistan draws flak for test-firing a ballistic missile

Pakistan yesterday successfully test fired its Ghauri intermediate-range ballistic missile, an army spokesman said.

The Ghauri, first tested in April 1998, can hit targets as far away as 1,500km and is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads.

The missile successfully hit its target about 900km away from the launching site and carried an 800kg payload, Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who witnessed the missile test, congratulated the scientists, engineers and staff on their "unique technical success."

"Pakistan's policy of maintaining minimum credible deterrence as a cornerstone of its national security policy had been conceived after much thought and care and stood the test of time," a statement by Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) quoted him as saying after the test.

Jamali made it clear that Pakistan's edge over "its adversaries in the strategic field" will be maintained at all costs.

He promised to provide the resources to maintain the quality of the nation's deterrence.

The missile tested yesterday was second in range only to the Shaheen-2, which was tested in March this year with a capacity of 2,000km.

Sultan said yesterday's test was aimed at improving the parameters of the missile and that all neighboring countries had been informed of the test beforehand.

In the past, all of Pakistan's medium-range missiles were fired from a site about 120km east of Islamabad.

The Ghauri missile system was introduced into the Army Strategic Forces Command early last year along with the Shaheen-1 and Ghazanvi ballistic missile systems.

Foreign defense observers said they suspected Ghauri was originally based on technology used in the North Korean Nodong missile. Islamabad said it was an indigenous effort.

Meanwhile, Japan expressed regret over the test. "It is deeply regrettable that Pakistan conducted the test despite efforts by the international community for non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missiles," said a statement issued by the Japanese embassy in Islamabad yesterday.
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