By USMAN ANSARI
ISLAMABAD — The increase in defense spending under Pakistan’s new defense budget is largely consumed by wages and the cost of anti-insurgency operations, analysts say, providing little real increase for the military.
Unveiled by the new Pakistani government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N June 12, the budget, converted from Pakistani rupees, amounts to some US $6.36 billion, a rise from the previous budget of approximately US $4.6 billion.
It comes at a time of severe economic hardship.
According to the text of the unveiled budget, GDP growth has been below 3 percent and inflation has remained at 13 percent, the highest for the past four decades, while foreign exchange reserves have fallen from $11.1 billion to $6.3 billion.
The defense budget does not usually include procurement. It mainly consists of wages and operational costs with increases fueled by ongoing counterinsurgency efforts.
Especially when considering the latter factor, said Brian Cloughley, former Australian defense attaché to Islamabad, , the higher budget is “no increase at all, really.”
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