WEB DESK

United States has announced sanctions against seven Pakistani entities allegedly associated with the country’s missile programme. The US Department of Commerce by a notification said that the entities added to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) list have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.

According to the notification, the US government determined that there was reasonable cause to believe, that these “government, parastatal, and private entities in Pakistan are determined to be involved in activities that are contrary to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. All seven have been placed on the entity list under the destination of Pakistan.The placement on the list imposes a licence requirement for all items subject to the EAR and a licence review policy of presumption of denial.

The entities notified are (1) Ahad International,Lahore; (2) Air Weapons Complex (AWC, Islamabad; (4) Maritime Technology Complex (MTC), Karachi; (5) National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM),Islamabad; (6) New Auto Engineering (NAE),Rawalpindi; and (7) Universal Tooling Services through its three associates ,Forward Design and Manufacturing; SM Enterprises; and -Technopak Engineering.

Pakistan has always denied any wrongdoing in connection with its nuclear or missile programme.