Money and the military

Pakistan’s military appears to have grown into a machine with an insatiable appetite for money. The reported – unannounced – increase in defence expenditure by about Rs110 billion, from Rs442.2 billion announced in the budget in June to Rs552 billion presented in a paper to the IMF comes at the cost of social sector development. The allocation for safeguarding the welfare of people by looking after their needs for education, healthcare and infrastructure has been slashed by Rs73 billion. What is especially disturbing is the clandestine manner in which the changes have been made. Senior officials at the finance ministry suggested a typographical error may have been responsible, and they knew nothing about it. The military spokesman has also said this is not in his knowledge. Reports however state the increase may be intended to fund a major operation in the tribal areas.

We must stress, first of all, that the budget is a public document. Changes should not need to be made so soon after it has been drawn up and passed by parliament. Such tampering with budget documents has been seen before, in most cases to make alterations that the government knows may not go down well with the public. An equally pressing question concerns the matter of just how much we can afford to spend on our military and its operations. It is true the war in the north is important but surely this could have been budgeted for in June. The slicing away of funds so badly needed for development is still more disturbing. We need to realise that our best hope of defending our nation lies in building the capacity of our people and ensuring for them a better quality of life. The failures to do so have contributed to the growth in militancy and to other threats than now lurk with predictions of food riots heard in more and more places. The country’s politicians must consider if this situation is a sustainable one and for how long we can keep up the effort to meet the military demand for more.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2010.