UNITED NATIONS    -   Pakistan has expressed concern over the “generous” supply of con­ventional weapons to India, saying it was fueling instability and jeopar­dizing the delicate regional balance in South Asia.

“The policy of double standards towards South Asia, based on nar­row strategic, political and com­mercial considerations, must be es­chewed,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi told the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, which deals with disar­mament and international security matters. At the same time, Ambassa­dor Hashmi, who is Pakistan’s per­manent representative to UN offices in Geneva, said 

that Pakistan was committed to the establishment of strategic stabil­ity in South Asia, which includes an element of conventional force bal­ance. “Pakistan neither wants nor is it engaged in an arms race in the region,” the Pakistani envoy said in New York during a thematic debate on conventional weapons. 

“For over three decades,” he said, “this Committee has adopted Paki­stan’s resolution on the promotion of conventional arms control at the regional and sub-regional levels, based on the principles of undimin­ished security of all states, and bal­anced reduction of forces and of con­ventional armaments.

The destabilizing developments, fuelled by huge arms transfers were “evident in South Asia where one state’s military spending vastly out­numbers that of all others,” Ambas­sador Hashmi said, without naming India. “The generous supply of con­ventional weaponry to this state, to­gether with its strategic capabilities, is fueling instability, jeopardizing the delicate regional balance, hin­dering the resolution of longstand­ing disputes, reinforcing its sense of impunity and hegemonic designs and impeding the realization of du­rable peace and sustainable devel­opment in the region,” the Pakistani envoy added.

At the outset, Ambassador Hash­mi said that, although conventional armaments were the first category of lethal weapons, efforts to regu­late them had been only partially successful.