Lahore, Apr 29 (PTI) Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz of Punjab province of Pakistan on Tuesday said no one can attack the country so easily as it has nuclear power.

Maryam, who had not condemned the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam that killed 26 people, was speaking on the tension brewing between India and Pakistan for the first time.

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Maryam, daughter of former prime minister and ruling PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, was addressing a ceremony here when she said, “Today, there is tension looming on the India-Pakistan border. But there's no need to panic as Allah has blessed the Pakistan Army with the strength to defend the country.”

“No one can attack Pakistan so easily as we are a nuclear power,” she said. “No matter what political affiliations we have, we must stand united like a wall of steel behind armed forces against any outside aggression.”

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“Pakistan's strength comes from the sacrifices of its martyrs," she said and gave credit to her father for turning Pakistan into a nuclear power. “Nawaz Sharif played a historic role in making Pakistan a nuclear power.”

Incidentally, Nawaz Sharif too has not condemned the Pahalgam attack so far nor has commented on the issue.

Daily Express Tribune quoted sources in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as saying: “Nawaz Sharif wants his government to utilize all available diplomatic resources to restore peace between the two nuclear armed states. Nawaz is not keen on taking an aggressive position.”

Earlier on his return from London to Lahore, journalists sought Nawaz Sharif's comment on the Pahalgam attack, but he refused.

Meanwhile, senior leader from opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former foreign minister Moonis Elahi lambasted the elder Sharif for keeping mum over the Pahalgam incident.

“There has been a mysterious silence by Nawaz Sharif after India suspended the IWT and took other extreme measures against Pakistan. Is Nawaz-Modi interests being above Pakistan's interests,” he asked in a tweet on X.

Elahi also chided Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for admitting in an interview that Pakistan is a terror state. “Does Khawaja Asif, a 'Dafa minister' have any shame left in him to admit at this critical juncture that Pakistan is a terror state,” Elahi asked.

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