Former senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has strongly criticised a documentary by Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), accusing it of portraying Pakistan’s nuclear programme in a biased and misleading manner.
In a statement shared on X, Mushahid described the documentary as a “crude” and “intellectually dishonest” attempt to question the legitimacy and safety of Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. The former senator also challenged the documentary’s depiction of Pakistan’s nuclear history, arguing that it failed to provide the wider regional context surrounding the 1998 nuclear tests.
He objected to the documentary’s claim that Pakistan had “illegally developed” nuclear weapons, arguing that there is no legal pathway for acquiring nuclear arms. He also questioned why, in his view, similar scrutiny was not applied to countries such as India and Israel.
Mushahid further criticised the documentary for stating that Pakistan officially revealed its nuclear capability through the 1998 nuclear tests without, he said, providing the context that the tests were conducted in response to India’s nuclear tests earlier that year. He argued that omitting this sequence of events distorted the historical background of South Asia’s nuclearisation.
The former senator also criticised Deutsche Welle’s editorial standards, saying the broadcaster had failed to maintain professional objectivity. He linked his criticism to Germany’s recent defeat in the June 2026 election for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, where Austria and Portugal secured the available seats.
Referring to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Mushahid also revisited remarks the chancellor made in June 2025 regarding Israel’s military actions against Iran, arguing that those comments had damaged Germany’s international standing.
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