'Pak nukes can never fall into wrong hands’

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh (2L) and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran (3L) talk with a delegation led by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri during a meeting in Islamabad yesterday. Pakistan and India held talks to review the second round of a peace process started last year between the South Asian nuclear-armed rivals. PHOTO: AFP

"We have a strong command and control system in place to safeguard our strategic assets," The Daily Mail quoted Aziz as saying on Sunday in an address to the Islamic University of Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur.

"If we can develop the nuclear programme, we can manage it at world class level," he said, in response to a question.

The Prime Minister ruled out the possibility "of their falling into wrong hands".

One of the participants at the gathering was keen to know if nuclear weapons would remain safe in Pakistan, which is under Western pressure to crack down on al-Qaeda and its local adherents.

Pakistan's nuclear scientist, AQ Khan, is now under arrest on charges of illegally passing on nuclear secrets to select countries.

Giving the rationale behind developing nuclear weapons, the Prime Minister linked it to peace in South Asia.