Pakistan will not allow India to create a strategic imbalance in South Asia, Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Kidwai, an adviser to Pakistan's National Command Authority (NCA), said on Tuesday at the second Islamabad Non-Proliferation Conference, hosted by the Strategic Vision Institute, Dawn reported. "Pakistan never has and never will accept strategic imbalances to be induced in South Asia," Kidwai said, warning — in Pakistan's assessment — that India was shifting towards a more ready, potentially first-use-capable nuclear force able to launch a strike with virtually no warning.

Kidwai and Lt Gen (retd) Sarfraz Sattar, also an NCA adviser and a former head of the Strategic Plans Division, cited the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) Yearbook 2026 and other publicly available information pointing to reports that India had deployed about 12 nuclear warheads on a submarine for deterrence patrols. They also pointed to India's missile canisterisation and wider nuclear and conventional modernisation, arguing that these developments cast doubt on the credibility of India's declared "No First Use" policy. Dawn reported that Pakistan had warned it would review and reconsider all options for appropriate deployment in order to restore the strategic balance and stability, while retaining strategic ambiguity. These are the Pakistani advisers' characterisations of India's programme; India had not publicly responded to the remarks in the reports.

In the conference's own coverage, Kidwai described Pakistan's Full Spectrum Deterrence as fundamentally defensive, aimed at preventing aggression and preserving strategic stability in South Asia, and said the absence of pre-notification of Indian submarine-launched ballistic missile tests could undermine stability and raise the risk of miscalculation. The remarks come in the post-May 2025 India–Pakistan conflict environment, which both speakers discussed at the conference. India and Pakistan are both nuclear-armed, and statements of this kind from Pakistan's strategic establishment are watched closely in the region because they signal how Islamabad says it will respond to changes in India's posture. Sources: Dawn (Oct 21, Islamabad Non-Proliferation Conference report); Strategic Vision Institute conference coverage via PakistanINews / The Global Times PK (Oct 20–21), citing SIPRI Yearbook 2026.