Pakistan PM Imran Khan (Reuters photo)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani military on Wednesday denied that Islamabad has "no first use (NFU)"policy on nuclear weapons . The army's clarification comes two days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said his country will never use nukes first against India.

While claiming that nuclear countries have no room for war, Pakistan military's spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor said: "Using weapons of deterrence is a political choice. We have no NFU policy, these are weapons of deterrence." The director general of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan army's media wing, was addressing a press conference in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after India defanged Article 370 .

Responding to a question about Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh 's recent statement that New Delhi's no-first-use policy on nukes was open to review, the military spokesperson said: "If they (India) want to change their policy then it is their choice. But there is a second after first."

About use of nukes, Maj Gen Ghafoor further said this was a serious issue and a political one, which should not be discussed in press conferences or rallies.

He said the two nuclear powers do not have space for a nuclear war, due to which India has "indirectly continued to attack Pakistan".

"The issue of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav is a primary example of indirect attacks from across the border," the army spokesperson said, adding that Pakistan has been fighting a hybrid war for the past two decades and considering the conflict spectrum, Islamabad's options of response revolved around economy, diplomacy, finance, intelligence, etc.

Describing India as a perpetual threat, Maj Gen Ghafoor said: "India should think that our perpetual threat is just one and has been for the past 70 years. When it comes to the eastern border, everything is devoted to it, full stop."

Ghafoor said Islamabad is playing a role in the Afghan reconciliation process and if peace is established in Afghanistan, 200,000 Pakistani troops deployed at the western border will probably be removed. "Maybe India thinks that it should take action against us that would weaken us. We want to tell India that wars are not only fought with weapons and economy but with patriotism," he said.

He said the Kashmir issue will be resolved whether it takes a day or a year. "The struggle for freedom is now in the DNA of a new generation of Kashmiris ," the spokesperson added.

