• US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard identifies Pakistan as a potential missile threat to the US.
• Pakistani officials dispute these claims, asserting that their missile program is aimed at India.
• Experts in non-proliferation challenge the characterization of Pakistan's missile capabilities.

The recent assertion by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has identified Pakistan alongside Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran as a nation with advancing missile capabilities that could one day strike the US homeland. In a presentation to the Senate, Gabbard warned that countries like Pakistan were developing traditional and novel missile systems with nuclear payloads to pose a threat. She cited that threats to the US homeland could rise from over 3,000 missiles currently to more than 16,000 by 2035, due to evolving missile technologies and capabilities, according to Dawn, Dawn, and Al Jazeera.

Pakistani officials, including the Foreign Office and former caretaker foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, have categorically rejected Gabbard's claims. Jilani stated that the idea of Pakistan's missiles threatening the US homeland is "not grounded in strategic reality" and emphasized that Pakistan's missile capabilities are aimed solely at maintaining credible deterrence against India, not for global power projection. He asserted that Pakistan's nuclear doctrine is "India-specific," further arguing that Islamabad's missile development remains below intercontinental range, according to Dawn and South China Morning Post.

The Foreign Office spokesperson, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, reiterated that Pakistan's strategic capabilities are defensive and focus on preserving national sovereignty and stability in South Asia. He highlighted the contrast with India's missile development, which is reported to exceed 12,000 kilometers, suggesting that such advancements constitute a more significant regional threat. Furthermore, Andrabi called for a more balanced and fact-based discourse regarding South Asia's security dynamics, according to Dawn and Dawn.

Nuclear non-proliferation experts have pushed back against the US assessment, arguing that Pakistan's missile program is primarily intended for regional deterrence rather than an expansive threat to the US. They emphasize that Pakistan's longest-range operational missile, the Shaheen-III, possesses a range sufficient to cover Indian territories but lacks the capacity to reach US soil. Experts argue that focusing on missile development only as a means to deter India overlooks the broader regional context of South Asian military dynamics, according to South China Morning Post and Al Jazeera.