Author: PTI
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: December 7, 2003
URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2003/dec/07pak.htm
Pakistan demolished its giant missile
statue in Islamabad erected after the country's nuclear tests in 1998.
The move comes ahead of next month's
South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation summit to be attended by
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee among others.
The statue is a massive replica
of the Ghouri missile at the picturesque F-10 intersection in the capital.
The demolition was part of change
of capital city's beautification plan, Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal
Saleh Hayat told reporters.
But officials of Capital Development
Authority were more forthright in their comments to the media.
"The missile statue was not giving
any impressive impression of Pakistan, therefore it would be replaced by
a peace statue," one of the official said.
Considering the emotions it could
evoke, officials brought down the statue late last night.
CDA officials said missile models
in other parts of the city too would be removed and replaced with more
aesthetic statues.