Pakistan - News and Discussion 6

[Naresh]

<b>Defence spending and development</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The implications of the defence strategy may now be considered. Minimum deterrence requires Pakistan to support a military force equal to at least one third of India, when the size of Pakistan’s economy is about one seventh of India. (Figures for the size of GDP in 2004 reported by World Bank are $691 billion for India, $96 billion for Pakistan). <span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Clearly, the defence burden on the Pakistan economy is twice as much than on the Indian economy.</span></b> As a corollary, India has more resources, as a proportion of GDP for socio-economic development, compared to Pakistan. India already has an edge over Pakistan in economic and social indicators and this will tend to widen in the long run.

<b>International comparisons also show that the defence spending in Pakistan is much higher than the average.</b> The low income group of countries to which we belong spends only 2.2 per cent of GDP on the military <b>as compared to nearly five per cent by Pakistan. The claim made by the prime minister that defence requires only 3.7 per cent of GDP is grossly misleading as the recent reduction in the defence budget has been secured by transferring military pensions which account for 25 per cent of the defence budget to the general account. <span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>A computation of military spending, in accordance with internationally accepted conventions, would show that the ratio of military spending to GDP is near five per cent.</span></b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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