Top Pakistani General warns against 'unnecessary and unfounded views' on nation's nuclear programme:

A top Pakistani general on Monday warned that "unnecessary and unfounded views" on the country's nuclear programme should be avoided, days after ousted prime minister Imran Khan warned that if Islamabad were to lose its nuclear deterrence, it would fragment into "three pieces".

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) General Nadeem Raza made the remarks in his keynote address at a seminar on "Regional Environment and Imperatives of Security" at the NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS) in Islamabad, the army said in a statement.

"Pakistan is a confident and responsible nuclear power. It pursues the policy of full-spectrum deterrence within the precincts of credible minimum deterrence,” the four-star general said.

"Our national security and safety architecture meets all national and international obligations and caters for all kinds of scenarios," he added.

He also said that as a norm in other nuclear-capable nations, "unnecessary and unfounded views on the strategic program should be avoided".