ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the National Command Authority (NCA) Lt Gen (retd) Mazhar Jamil has warned that India, through its increasingly aggressive strategic weapons programme, could emerge as a threat to Western countries in addition to its regional rivals.
Gen Mazhar Jamil, a former Director General of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) and currently an adviser to the NCA, was speaking at a seminar held here, hosted by the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS), to commemorate Youm-e-Takbeer 2026. The seminar, titled “Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapon Programme — Guarantor of Peace and Stability in South Asia,” was attended by scholars, academics and strategic affairs experts.
He said India’s long-range missile development reflected ambitions extending beyond South Asia. “The trajectory of India’s strategic forces programme, including its intercontinental-range missile systems, is not oriented solely towards Pakistan or China. It is oriented towards establishing India as a global nuclear power capable of threatening major Western capitals,” Gen Jamil said.
He urged Western governments to take note of India’s military modernisation. “The United States and its European partners should realise that the strategic challenge that India will pose to them in the coming decade is one they have chosen to ignore at their own peril,” he said.
Addressing regional security issues, Gen Jamil said Pakistan’s restraint during the May 2025 conflict with India was “a deliberate and considered choice”, warning that any future Indian military action would draw a “decisive and comprehensive” response. “The cost India would bear for such aggression would be far higher than any political or military objective it could hope to achieve.” He also argued that India’s strategic outlook was increasingly shaped by Hindutva ideology, saying that understanding Indian strategic culture had become “an analytical imperative”. He contended that the so-called Doval Doctrine and elements of Kautilyan statecraft shared the objective of keeping neighbouring states “weak, fragmented and dependent”.
In his opening remarks, CISS Executive Director Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi said Pakistan’s nuclear capability had helped maintain deterrence stability in South Asia and prevented large-scale war. “Pakistan’s nuclear capability has fundamentally shaped the strategic landscape of South Asia,” Amb Naqvi said. “It has contributed to deterrence stability, prevented large-scale war, and created conditions in which crises can be managed without escalating into full-scale conflict.”
CISS Director Research Dr Bilal Zubair said Pakistan’s decision to develop nuclear weapons was driven by security concerns arising from India’s nuclear programme. He said Pakistan’s nuclear capability was ultimately developed to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and national security.
Former Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Dr Ansar Parvez discussed the role of Pakistani scientists in the country’s nuclear weapons programme, saying Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests under intense international pressure and scrutiny. Brig (retd) Dr Zahir-ul-Haider Kazmi, Adviser on Arms Control at Pakistan’s SPD, said Pakistan’s military response during Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos demonstrated the credibility of its deterrence posture and its ability to manage escalation below the nuclear threshold. Quaid-i-Azam University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal said India had become increasingly diplomatically isolated following the Pahalgam episode, and claimed that New Delhi was pursuing a strategy of “defensive offence” through covert and hybrid means.
