Defence is the back bone of any country but in my country people spread false news about our defence. Many myths have spread all over the society. I will clear the myth about defence.

According to first myth, our largest expenditure is defence. The reality is our largest expenditure item in the budget is Dept servicing. The second largest expenditure, which is deliberately hidden in budget figures, will actually be eaten up by losses of public sector enterprises like PIA, the Pakistan Steel Mills, power sector and Pak railway. The third largest chunk will go for the public sector development programme and the fourth largest allocation will go towards, ‘Defence Affairs and Services .

According to second myth, the defence budget takes away the lion’s share of the total budgetary outlay. The reality is in budget 2019-20, ‘Defence Affair and Services’ will consume around 18 to 20 percent of all government expenditures. What this means is that a full 82 percent of all government expenditures are not of defence related.

According to third myth, the defence budget has been increasing at a high rate. The reality is in the financial year 2001-02 the allocation for defence amounts to 4.6 percent G.D.P. In 2003 the defence budget dropped to 3.5 percent of G.D.P. Budget 2019-20 has almost 1.3 trillion for ‘Defence Affairs and Services’ which is 3.2 percent of G.D.P.

According to the last myth, the Pakistan army consumes almost the entire defence budget. The reality is that in the 1960s Pak army’s budget as a percentage of our national budget had hit a high of 42 percent. In budget as a percentage of our national budget has dropped shortly and it now amounts to 9.6 percent.

MUHAMMAD AZAM NAGRA,

Lahore.