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"An offensive punch for Pakistan Navy"

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday Pakistan was strengthening its armed forces as peace could be guaranteed only through force and strength and not through weakness. In keeping with this, Pakistan followed a strategy of "offensive defensive deterrence," but did not have "offensive designs" on anyone, he said. The official Associated Press of Pakistan reported Gen. Musharraf said this in Karachi where he launched the indigenously built Agosta 90-B class submarine, named Hamza. This is the third Agosta submarine to join the Navy. The first one was built entirely in France by the French company DCNI. The second, Saad, was built through French and Pakistani collaboration, while Hamza was built in Pakistan. Gen. Musharraf said Pakistan's policy was actually "offensive defensive deterrence." The submarine had given an "offensive punch" to the Navy, he said. He commended the indigenisation of military hardware in all three services. Pakistan Air Force was developing the Chinese JF-17 fighter aircraft, while the Navy was next working on the F22P frigates, also from China. The army's indigenously developed main battle tank Al Khalid and support tank Al-Zarrar were also of the highest quality, he said. Attacking "drawing room critics and pseudo intellectuals" for demanding a reduction in defence spending, Gen. Musharraf said, "I want to tell them that security and peace is only guaranteed through force and strength, never through weakness." He said Lebanon was a tragic example of what could happen to a weak country, "therefore, the armed forces of Pakistan, Inshallah, will keep growing from strength to strength." But Pakistan was not in an arms race, he said and described economic development as the key to progress.

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