Pakistan: Shaheen III ballistic missile test successful
The director-general of the strategic plans division has expressed confidence in Pakistan's capabilities for nuclear deterrence.
The Pakistani Armed Forces’ media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), announced that Pakistan successfully tested its Shaheen III missile.
In a statement on Saturday, the ISPR disclosed that the country conducted a successful flight test of Shaheen-III surface to surface ballistic missile. "The test flight was aimed at re-validating various design and technical parameters of the weapon system."
Lt. Gen. Nadeem Zaki Manj, the Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division, oversaw the test and expressed confidence regarding Pakistan's capabilities of deterring nuclear threats.
The land-based surface-to-surface medium-range ballistic missile Shaheen-III can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. The Shaheen-III ballistic missile underwent its initial tests in March 2015.
This comes following the Pakistani opposition's no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government passed the National Assembly with a slight win against MPs who opposed the bid to oust the premier, Pakistani media reported.
The no-confidence vote garnered 174 votes in favor, while the National Assembly has 342 MPs, and the result was announced by PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq, who was chairing the session instead of speaker Asad Qaiser who had resigned minutes before the session started.
The no-confidence vote was postponed twice in the past week. Members of Khan's party said on Friday that they will strive to postpone the vote as long as possible, following Khan's pledge to "fight" any attempt to oust him, citing foreign conspiracy against Islamabad and US interference and shining at a "threat letter" from the US because he refused to establish US military bases in Pakistan.