Defense Budget of Pakistan Goes up by 12 %

In current economical conditions, a significant 12% rise in Pakistan’s defense budget for the fiscal year starting on July 1 has outpaced the 8.1% increase in the overall national budget announced last week of June 2011, still this increase in defense budget hugely undermines the actual military spending in the heavily indebted and terror-rid country. The real amount might possibly be nearly double the stated budgeted figures.

A separate allocation for security-related expenses and the amount given over to pensions of military personnel have not been included in the 495 billion rupees (US$5.76 billion) in budgeted defense expenditures. If added, these bring total military and security costs to 900 billion rupees. Debt servicing alone will consume 38% of the next fiscal year’s budget, with 1,034 billion rupees earmarked for debt servicing and repayment of foreign loans, compared with an original 699 billion rupees, later revised to 726 billion rupees, in the 2010-11 budget.

A scrutiny of defense spending has been demanded by many in Pakistan, particularly following the May 2 Abbottabad assault in which American special forces claim that they killed Osama bin Laden and the recent terrorist attack on the thought-to-be-secure Mehran naval base in Karachi.

Defense spending has been on rise since the security condition of Pakistan is poor and defense spending is on the rise at the expense of development spending, leading to demands that the national security paradigm shifts to social concerns, with the bulk of the nation’s resources spent on education, health and other related and no-nonsense welfare projects.

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