The scope of national security has now encompassed more than just security challenges, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday, adding food security and climate change are new national security challenges for Pakistan.

"We are slowly realizing that national security relates to areas which no one thinks about. National security today includes many aspects that have been ignored in previous decades, including climate change, food security, and economic prosperity,” Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn at the Islamabad Security Dialogue.

He said that it was also an area concerning national security. “The issue was one which no one had paid attention to before when it was a very frightening thing which had the potential to overshadow everything else for upcoming generations,” he added. 

"Pakistan is among those countries taking steps to tackle climate change," he said, adding that his government’s policies on the issue have been hailed internationally.  

In his address, he said that the government would also announce the programs to tackle the issue of food security in the coming weeks.

The economy, he claimed, also played a key role in national security. "National security cannot be envisaged in a country where there are some rich people and a sea of poor people."