ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did not back President Asif Ali Zardari's policy of not engaging in nuclear attacks first, a leaked cable from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to Washington said.
Reports based on the February 19, 2009 communique leaked by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, said that the then U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson believed General Kayani had conflicting stands against Presidentt Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.
“Although he has remained silent on the subject, Kayani does not support Zardari's statement last year to the Indian press that Pakistan would adopt a ‘no first use’ policy on nuclear weapons,” Patterson wrote, just days ahead of the General’s week-long trip to America.
“Despite increasing financial constraints, we believe that the military is proceeding with an expansion of both its growing strategic weapons and missile programs,” she added, speaking on the country’s nuclear arsenal, which is believed to be the world’s fastest growing.
The diplomat also expressed concerns that someone working in a nuclear facility “could gradually smuggle enough fissile material out to eventually make a weapon.”
The leaked cable, which was issued months after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai that killed over 160 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militants, also makes references to the Pakistani army and Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) support to terror groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“Zardari and Gilani agree that Pakistan's biggest threat comes from a growing militant insurgency on the Pak-Afghan border. The military and ISI have not yet made that leap,” Patterson wrote.
“They still view India as their principal threat and Afghanistan as strategic depth in a possible conflict with India. They continue to provide overt or tacit support for proxy forces (including the Haqqani group, Commander Nazir, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, and Lashkar-e-Taiba) as a foreign policy tool,” she added.
She advises that during Kayani’s visit to Washington, the General must be pressed to stop backing militant proxies and asserts that “Mumbai exposed the fruits of previous ISI policy to create Lashkar-e-Taiba”.
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did not back President Asif Ali Zardari's policy of not engaging in nuclear attacks first, a leaked cable from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to Washington said. Reports based on the February 19, 2009 communique leaked by whistleblowing...
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did not back President Asif Ali Zardari's policy of not engaging in nuclear attacks first, a leaked cable from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to Washington said.
Reports based on the February 19, 2009 communique leaked by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, said that the then U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson believed General Kayani had conflicting stands against Presidentt Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.
“Although he has remained silent on the subject, Kayani does not support Zardari's statement last year to the Indian press that Pakistan would adopt a ‘no first use’ policy on nuclear weapons,” Patterson wrote, just days ahead of the General’s week-long trip to America.
“Despite increasing financial constraints, we believe that the military is proceeding with an expansion of both its growing strategic weapons and missile programs,” she added, speaking on the country’s nuclear arsenal, which is believed to be the world’s fastest growing.
The diplomat also expressed concerns that someone working in a nuclear facility “could gradually smuggle enough fissile material out to eventually make a weapon.”
The leaked cable, which was issued months after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai that killed over 160 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militants, also makes references to the Pakistani army and Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) support to terror groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“Zardari and Gilani agree that Pakistan's biggest threat comes from a growing militant insurgency on the Pak-Afghan border. The military and ISI have not yet made that leap,” Patterson wrote.
“They still view India as their principal threat and Afghanistan as strategic depth in a possible conflict with India. They continue to provide overt or tacit support for proxy forces (including the Haqqani group, Commander Nazir, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, and Lashkar-e-Taiba) as a foreign policy tool,” she added.
She advises that during Kayani’s visit to Washington, the General must be pressed to stop backing militant proxies and asserts that “Mumbai exposed the fruits of previous ISI policy to create Lashkar-e-Taiba”.
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