Pakistan deserves NSG membership more than India: Sartaj Aziz

ISLAMABAD (News Desk) - Expressing confidence that Pakistan would be included in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Prime Minister's Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that if New Delhi secures entry into the NSG, Pakistan will also not be left behind as the latter has stronger credentials for the membership.

In an interview with Dawn News, Aziz said the 48-nation club should define a uniform criteria to welcome the states who have not signed the non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"If they agree on such a uniform criteria, then Pakistan has stronger credentials for NSG membership than India," he went on to say, while responding a question.

The adviser said that Islamabad had engaged several NSG members at the diplomatic level and gathered support for the criteria-based approach.

To another query, he said that Pakistan' application for NSG membership was prepared some three months ago, however the plan was to follow Indian application.

Pakistan has a long history of safeguarding its nuclear assets, while India has abused its capability for a number of time since its first nuclear test in 1974, he added.

"Once nuclear fissile material was stolen from India, however no such incident even took place in the case of Pakistan," Sartaj Aziz maintained.