Government mocks Pakistan flip-flop on meet of body in charge of nuke arsenal

NEW DELHI: Government on Saturday mocked Pakistan for calling a meeting of its National Command Authority, the top military and civil body overseeing the country's nuclear arsenal , only to cancel it shortly afterwards.

"This thing that you have spoken about (nuclear option) is present, but let's not talk about it - we should treat it as a very distant possibility, we shouldn't even discuss it in the immediate context," news agencies quoted Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif as telling a TV channel.

"Before we get to that point, I think temperatures will come down. No meeting has happened of the National Command Authority, nor is any such meeting scheduled," he added.

While media speculated that US secretary of state Marco Rubio's phone call to Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir and foreign minister Ishaq Dar was behind the change of plan, government sources viewed it as an attempt to blackmail India into pausing its operations by wielding the N-threat.

"They are bluffing, not realising that this does not work any more," a government functionary said, adding the fear that Pakistan may unleash its nukes failed to deter India from carrying out surgical strikes in 2016, the Balakot air raid in 2019 and the precision strikes to avenge Pahalgam.