Almost all Indian media outlets
– from electronic and print media to social media – are giving wide coverage to
an apparently “unusual development in the region” under which Pakistan is all
set to upgrade and advance its indigenous space programme which previously had
“limited quality advancements” as compared to that of India who has of late been
engaged in active cooperation with the United States in order to enhance and
upgrade its (Indian) satellite programme. In the recently announced annual
budget, the Pakistan government has allocated a reasonable funding for the
current fiscal. After successful completion of the programme, Pakistan is likely
to come at par in space technology as well.
Obviously the news of Pakistan’s more vibrant and advance space programme plan
has sent shockwaves especially across India as the report published in
newspapers specifically mentions that this programme is primarily aimed at
keeping an eye on the Indian side, besides other purposes. However, on the other
hand, people of Pakistan, civil society, intelligentsia and political-cum-defence
observers have expressed great satisfaction as for Pakistan advance space
programmes were the need of the hour not only for the defence point of view but
also due to the growing demand from the civil communications, including the GPS,
mobile telephony and the internet as well as due to changing scenario in the
region, under which India has advanced itself to create security imbalance in
the region.
Pakistan is entering a new era of advancement after its most successful, advance
and vibrant nuclear deterrent and missile system programmes. This will help
reduce Pakistan’s dependence on foreign satellites it needs to use for civil and
military purposes. Earlier Pakistan had been getting help from the US and
France. Under the new indigenous space programme Pakistan plans to initiate
several projects to develop its own self-reliance capacity while reducing the
dependence on foreign satellites.
The budget for SUPARCO (Pakistan’s “Space and Upper Atmosphere Research
Organisation”) for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-2019 has been set as Rs 4.70
billion, which includes Rs 2.55 billion for three new projects. SUPARCO has
regularly been conducting activities each year to increase awareness of space
technology and to promote its peaceful usage amongst the students and the masses
in Pakistan since 2005. The budget allocation includes funding of Rs 1.35
billion for Pakistan Multi-Mission Satellite (PakSat-MM1). Likewise, Pakistan is
planning to establish various Space Centres for example in cities like Karachi,
Lahore and Islamabad with the allocation of Rs 1 billion. Another project, third
in the row, which is on cards, is establishment of Space Application Research
Centre in Karachi with the budget of Rs 200 million in 2018-2019. The total cost
of PakSat-MM1 is said to be Rs 27.57 billion and the cost of the space centres
is Rs 26.91 billion.