'Arjun superior to Pak. tank'

NEW DELHI, AUG. 16. India's main battle tank Arjun is superior to Pakistan's recently rolled out Al Khalid, the Minister of State for Defence, Mr. U.V. Krishnam Raju, told the Rajya Sabha today.

Quoting reports, he said Pakistan had built ``some tanks called Al Khalid in collaboration with China''. ``However, this tank is not superior to the tanks being inducted in the Indian Army,'' he told the House in a written reply.

Mr. Raju denied that India and Israel were on the verge of concluding a military-nuclear pact. No proposal had been received from France for investment in the defence sector.

The Government was considering the Gen. Pankaj Joshi Committee report on reviewing officer cadre of the Army.

Mr. Raju refuted reports that the Dehra Dun laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation had been closed due to employee unrest. Work was continuing on the project which was making some important components of the anti-tank fourth generation Nag missile.

The engineering component of the Air Force combat units were being manned at almost 100 per cent level through internal adjustments. On shortage of IAF engineers, the Minister said sustained publicity efforts were on to generate talent.

A committee headed by the former Defence Secretary, Mr. N.N.Vohra, had been asked to prepare a report on making the Institute of Defence Studies and Anaylses more efficient and effective.

Bush visit

The Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Omar Abdullah, said the United States President, Mr. George Bush, had accepted an invitation to visit India and the dates would be decided through diplomatic channels.

He said though New Delhi had given a list of 52 PoWs, Islamabad was consistently denying there were any prisoners. Over the past few months, Islamabad had informed New Delhi of the completion of jail terms of 72 claimed Indian detainees. Mr. Abdullah said verification of the national status of the detainees was being done before their repatriation.

He side-stepped a question on the revival of Indo-Pak. cricket ties, saying the Indian team was playing with Pakistan in multilateral tournaments.

Space shuttle

The Government had no plans to launch a space shuttle, the Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Ms. Vasundhara Raje told Mr. Janeshwar Mishra.

She said the Indian Space Research Organisation had been successful in developing world class satellites and launch vehicles/rockets and utilising space systems in areas relevant to national development in a cost-effective manner.

- PTI

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