ISLAMABAD:
To mark the Global Day of Action, social activist Raja Jahangir Akhtar on Thursday announced yet another hunger strike, this time over military spending.
While addressing a press conference at National Press Club, Akhtar said that the purchase of expensive defence equipment has exceeded $650 billion and is steadily increasing. This year Pakistan was listed as the fourth largest importer of heavy fighting equipment.
Highlighting the reasons for his strike, Akhtar said that Pakistan’s military ranks 15th out of 189 countries in military spending. While the annual defence budget is Rs500 billion on paper, it is actually close to Rs800 billion. We spend nearly one billion US dollars annually on purchasing armaments from abroad, he added.
Akhtar further said that Pakistani establishment has accorded highest priority to military spending from day one, but human development has been ignored.
Pakistan ranks 145 on the human development index, out of a total 187 countries of the world. A number of Sub-Saharan African countries have started doing better than us, he added. Akhtar was of the view that the issue of “misplaced priorities” was the one that needed to be highlighted.
Rest of the world believes in providing better education and health facilities to its citizens, but in Pakistan national security is far more important than human security, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2012.
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The problem with Indian Subcontinent is that too many babies are born and their are so many mouths to feed.
How can there be human development when 75 million babies are born in Asia every year. Indian Subcontinent counts half of these births.
All the food, water, clothing and housing problems are arising due to this. May be we need another war to come to our senses.
I second views and idea of Jahangir. He has touched very important point. Rulers in order to promote their own interest are acting on the dictation of their foreign masters. They are misleading the common Pakistani on the issue of Islam and Kashmir. Kashmir issue has caused maximum damage to Pakistan in general and Punjab in particular. Most of Kashmiris have shifted their residence to Punjab where they were allotted land and they at present are ruling Punjab.It is strange they enjoy double nationality that is Pakistani and Kashmiri, On the other hand no Pakistani can purchase any peace of land in Kashmir nor can he get any job there. But Kashmiris can get job in Pakistan as well as Kashmir. Similarly Pathans have migrated to Pakistan in large number and now running big businesses. This is all because of rulers who want to keep aboriginal of this land subservient. To bring peace in this land and avoid expenditure on defence Kashmir issue should be abandoned by our rulers. Kashimis should go back to Kashmir and fight war to liberate Kashmir. Pathans should also be asked to leave this land and go back to their country. Our people can't afford to fight wars of other people. At the same time our rulers should create better relations with India. This measure would bring a positive change and prosperity in this land.