ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that ‘Youm-i-Takbeer’ is indeed a day of pride for Pakistani nation and the Muslims all over the globe.

Nawaz said this while giving a message to the nation on the occasion of Youm-i-Takbeer, which is being observed on Thursday (May 28) to mark the historic day when Pakistan became an atomic power.

The prime minister also reminded the nation about the historic background of the event. On May 11, 1998, India with its nuclear tests had disturbed the balance of power in the South Asian region.

He said there was a surge in the aggressive designs of India as it not only showed its intentions of sending armed forces to Azad Kashmir, with converging of army on the Line of Control, but its defence minister also announced that the Indian Army would be armed with the nuclear weapons.

“Under such nerve-wracking situation, we started consultation to cope with the Indian threat and faced the international pressure mounting on the country, asking us not to conduct the nuclear tests,” he said.

“However, Keeping the national interest in sight, we took the decision and on May 28, 1998 Pakistan became a nuclear power.”

The prime minister said that after conducting nuclear tests, defence of Pakistan became impregnable and the enemies could not dare to look towards it with bad intentions.

He said, now the enemies had changed their strategy and were trying to weaken the country internally.

“The government alone could not face such a situation, for this purpose the nation and the armed forces need to tackle this unitedly.”

Nawaz said, “Today the entire nation is united on the issue of terrorism,” and added the ongoing Operation Zarb-i-Azb against terrorists was getting unprecedented successes.

He said the officers and Jawans of Pakistan Army were sacrificing their lives to get rid the motherland of terrorism, so that the present and future of the coming generations could be secured.

He said on this important occasion he would like to mention China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and added “no one can deny the fact that a strong economy is a must for a strong defence.”

“I assure the people with complete honesty that the benefits of the economic corridor project will reach to the people of every region of Pakistan,” he added.

He said the government was serving the people with full devotion and were answerable to them for the steps taken by the government.