Kayani dismisses claims about heavy defence budget

Kayani dismisses claims about heavy defence budget

Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has dismissed claims that Pakistan spends more than half of its budget on defence and revealed that it is only 18 per cent, out of which Army gets a mere 8.5 per cent.

There have been a lot of question marks over the civil-military relations since last couple of years. A number of political analysts in the country feel that the present government in Pakistan is extremely weak and as a result, its policies are driven by
the military.

There is immense poverty in the country and more than 50 per cent of the population lives under the poverty-line. There have been talks in the media that in a country where such a massive amount of people do not even get two meals a day, the country spends
an unbelievable amount on defence.

However, the Chief of Army Staff has made it clear that the defence budget in Pakistan is decreasing with the passage of time because of the poor situation of the economy.

Kayani said, "Out of this 18 per cent, army’s share is 8.5 per cent. The defence budget is decreasing, not increasing, in view of the upward trend in the price of the dollar and inflation."

While talking about the changing relations with the US, Kayani expressed that the parliament is going to decide that Pakistan is ready to open the NATO supplies or not, because it is the major hurdle between smooth ties between the two countries.

“There is a parliamentary process going on and it is for parliament to decide about the restoration of Nato supplies and relations with the United States," Chief of Army Staff said.

A sequence of events since last couple of years have led to deteriorating relations between the two major allies of the war against terror. However, most of the political and defence analysts in Pakistan and the US feel that it is highly unlikely that the
relations between the two countries will be back to the point, where they were a couple of years ago.  

It remains to be seen that how things shape up between America and Pakistan in the years to come.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=12675

Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Feb 14 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry