It is well known that the country’s defence budget is dependent on the country’s geo-strategic environment. Pakistan’s current security environment faces various challenges that includes challenges at the western front, eastern front as well as facing domestic terrorism. Given the security environment, the defence budget allocated in budget 2021-22 appears to be inconsistent. The government has allocated Rs1,370 billion out of the total budgetary outlay of Rs8,487 billion that accounts for 16 percent of the total size of the budget and 2.5 percent of the GDP. Can a state like Pakistan with multiple security challenges address them properly with 16 percent allocation to defence services that includes the western border fencing? The simple answer is no! I have grown up in an environment where everyone blames Pakistan’s Army for receiving a huge chunk of budgetary resources. Some would say that Armed Forces consume 70 percent of the total budget while others would say 80 percent of the budget. But, facts are against such accusations. If we dig deeper in the defence budget of Rs1,370 billion Pakistan Army gets Rs594 billion or 44 percent of defence budget and a paltry 7 percent of the total budgetary resources or roughly 1.1 percent of the GDP. That completely denies the false accusations against the Army by both internal and external factors.
If we look at the historical figures, in the 1970s, the defence budget allocation stood at 6.5 percent of the GDP; in 2000-2001, it declines to 4.6 percent of the GDP; while in 2021-22, it further declined to 2.5 percent of the GDP. These numbers deny the accusation that the bulk of Pakistan’s budgetary resources is spent on the Armed Forces. There is a decline in the funds’ allocation from 6.5 percent of the GDP in the 1970 to 2.5 in 2021-22. According to the military balance of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Pakistan’s defence expenditure compared poorly with many other countries. For example, the US spent $732 billion or 3.4 percent of the GDP in 2019, China spent $261 billion or 1.9 percent of the GDP while India spent over $71 billion or 2.4 percent of the GDP, followed by Russia $65 billion or 3.9 percent of GDP, Saudi Arabia $62 billion or 8 percent of the GDP, France $50 billion or 1.9 percent of the GDP and UK $49 billion or 1.7 percent of the GDP. India has been the third largest defence spender in the world but no Indians have ever complained about the huge size of their defence budget/spending. On the other hand, a noticeable hue and cry on the Pakistani side is always visible. Keeping in view the security environment and challenges, people of the above-mentioned countries have never complained of their defence budgetary allocation. Then why are Pakistan Armed Forces accused being accused all the time of defence budget allocation? Pakistan’s military expenditure never fits in this criteria while the country is expected to fight back with its arch-rival India on all fronts.
The defence expenditure is inconsistent with the rising security demands from the Pakistan Armed Forces. On the basis of expenses per soldier, the US spends $392,000, Saudi Arabia $371,000, India $42,000, Iran $23,000 and Pakistan $13,400. Currently, every Pakistani is contributing around $25 per person at constant price to the quality of security services they expect to receive from the Armed Forces. This shows that the Armed Forces are doing their job pretty well keeping within the limited available resources and training facilities. But the issue is why myths associated with the high allocation of budgetary resources and defence expectations keep growing in Pakistan? At the domestic level, the so-called liberals are working on a strategic line to malign the Army and that eventually put them (Army) at the back foot. While at the national level, there is a huge difference between what we expect from the Pakistan Armed Forces and what we are ready to pay for their services.
The Armed Forces, especially Pakistan’s Army, never tried to explain their position and narrative on the allocation of budgetary resources. But, both the external and internal sources kept manipulating their silence as a tool of hybrid war against the Armed Forces of Pakistan who are fighting on all fronts: from the western border in Afghanistan to the violent eastern border with India; domestic terrorism; provide services to counter internal security challenges such as floods, earthquake, locust prevention, called in to clean rain-battered Karachi and help/assist the local government during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and vaccination. At the international level, the growing tensions in Afghanistan when the US is pulling off its troops, it is feared that violence between Taliban and the Afghan government may have spillover effects on the overall security of Pakistan.
In these simmering security challenges, the Armed Forces of Pakistan, particularly the Army, should maintain a clear-cut narrative on the allocation of resources and strategic position in the budget based on the security and services they are expected to provide. If we want to secure Pakistan both from within and outside, we have to spend on the institution that provides trust and guarantee. We have seen it in the recent 2019 Operation Swift Retort. It’s high time even for our society to think out of the box about capacity building and institutional uplift and accept the fact that there is no free lunch. If security is required, one has to pay for the bills.