Pakistan is among the few
states whose existence was not accepted by India and from the day one it
conspired to harm it. It succeeded partially in 1971 when it broke Pakistan into
two and converted its eastern wing into Bangladesh. It is now conspiring to
further truncate Pakistan. On its west is unfriendly Afghanistan, which has
traditionally remained pro-India and anti-Pakistan. Of late, India and
Afghanistan have become strategic partners and India has increased its influence
in Afghanistan manifold. Perpetual hostility of India and deceitful behavior of
Afghanistan has kept Pakistan on tenterhooks and in a constant state of
insecurity. It was essentially the factor of insecurity which impelled
Pakistan’s earlier leaders to gravitate towards the west and seek security in
western defence pacts.
An influential lobby in Pakistan at the behest of detractors of Pakistan has all
along been critical of armed forces and its defence expenditure. It sells a
mischievous misperception that but for 60% of national budget getting consumed
in defence; Pakistan would have become a prosperous state. Maulana Fazlur Rahman
alleged that ‘one day’s Army budget is the combined annual budget of education
and health’. He forgot that one day corruption in Pakistan during PPP led regime
came to Rupees twelve billion. He also forgot that unlike military run
institutions which are welfare oriented, they pay taxes and are running in
profit, all public sector enterprises are running in losses and second largest
portion of budget gets consumed in keeping them afloat. Losses incurred by them
can meet the needs of defence. Another falsehood in circulation is that the
military consumes a very big portion of government expenditures. The reality is
that in 2012/13, defence affairs and services consumed only 17% of all
government expenditures. Largest amount of budget is spent on domestic debt
servicing.
Those propagating curtailment of defence expenditure to be able to develop
economy forget that militarily weak Pakistan will tempt adventurers to either
step in or destabilize it from within employing covert means. Economic
prosperity is possible only when the country is free of external and internal
threats, or is militarily in a position to thwart the threats, or has abundant
mineral resources. All economic deals and bilateral trade agreements will remain
mutually beneficial if the deals have been signed from a position of equivalent
or near parity military strength. Diplomatic and political clout will be of some
substance if one has military capability matching the hostile neighbor wanting
to have its way.
China couldn’t have made such an impressive progress in its four-point
modernization program and turned into an economic giant on the strength of its
economy alone. While pursuing an overall defensive strategy, it never ignored
the growth of its military potential to keep its adversaries at bay. There was a
time when it was militarily weak, Britain imposed opium wars on China to force
it to buy and consume opium from it. Learning a lesson from history, China has
been spending huge amounts to build its military might, both conventional and
unconventional to deter its enemies.
Likewise, India’s military muscle enabled it to extract benefits from the
current and former super power as well as western world, Muslim world and Japan.
The US is keen to make India a world power and a bulwark against China because
of its military and economic strengths. India’s expanding military prowess
motivated China to push border dispute on the backburner and to forge trade and
cultural ties with India. India couldn’t have pursued its hegemonic policies
against all its neighbors in South Asia on its economic strength alone. Its vast
military capacity propels India to nurture grandiose plans of converting India
into Mahabharat stretching as far as Afghanistan and Indonesia including
Pakistan.
India’s ambitious force modernization program has been at the cost of 70%
Indians living below poverty line. Despite such a high a rate of poverty and
illiteracy, there has hardly been any dissenting voice heard from within India
objecting to lavish defence spending. No demand has been made to cut its ever
increasing defence budget each year. But for the huge defence budget allocation
of $40.44 billion, India couldn’t have employed over 1500,000 security forces to
combat insurgents and separatists in its 19 states including occupied Kashmir
where 700,000 troops are deployed since 1989. Its military which is in illegal
occupation of Siachin Glacier since June 1984 couldn’t have sustained a corps
size force for that long. But for its military clout, India which remained in
the Soviet camp from 1947 till 1990 would not have been gladly accepted as a
strategic partner by the sole super power and let it regain its lost influence
in Afghanistan.
Had Pakistan not striven to maintain military balance with India at the cost of
economic development, Pakistan by now might have got fragmented or turned into a
satellite of India. One of the main contributory reasons of political chaos and
economic meltdown in Pakistan has been the meddlesome role of India, which has
been impeding its economic and political growth through intrigues and coercive
tactics. Although Indian military has outpaced Pakistan’s military with a big
margin, Pakistan’s minimum nuclear deterrence has restrained it from embarking
upon high-cost risky venture. It is Pakistan’s nuclear capability which impelled
India to resort to indirect strategy. Having put on the mask of friendship, it
has been involved in covert war in concert with its strategic partners since
2002 to destabilize, denuclearize, de-Islamize and balkanize Pakistan.
Pakistan has been deviously embroiled in the futile war on terror imposed by USA
which is eating into its vitals. Pakistan military resources are progressively
dwindling in fighting this war with no end in sight, impacting its operational,
technical and administrative fitness for war. Despite being so heavily engaged
in this war for a decade, which is termed by some as an existential war, and
despite being faced with three dimensional threats, it is indeed surprising that
Pak Army has curtailed rather than increased its annual defence budget. Yet it
is being propagated that military expenditure have been constantly on the
increase. This is far from truth. Since 1990s, there has been a steady decline
from 3.6% of GDP to 2.5% of GDP in 2012/13.
Current Army’s expenditure is at the lowest in history of Pakistan. While
Pakistan’s total budget for the financial year 2012/2013 is Rupees 2960 billion,
defence budget is Rupees 545, that is, 18.4% of total budget. Defence budget for
Army, Navy and Air Force is 50% (Rupees 272 billions), Navy 25% (Rupees 136
billion), and Air Force 25% (136 billion). Army gets only 9% of total budget and
not 60% as propagated. Further slashing the defence budget would be at the cost
of compromising our defensive posture with crippling effects. Another myth which
has been given publicity by US media is that the Army pocketed $ 10 billion
Coalition Support Funds whereas in actuality it received only $1.8 billion as
reimbursement for services it rendered.
Pakistan military would have certainly drastically cut down its defence budget
and even its force structure had India been willing to do the same. Or India had
given a written commitment that it wouldn’t resort to covert or overt war and
would live as a peaceful and friendly neighbor. The US which is continuously
preaching that India poses no threat to Pakistan has also not given any
guarantee. Even if it gives a guarantee, it will have little value since it
didn’t honor its 1959 agreement in 1971. Pakistan could have given up its weapon
grade nuclear capability if India had reciprocated to Pakistan’s suggestion of
making South Asia a nuclear free zone. India’s plea of upgrading its military
potential because of threat from China is frivolous.
Given the hostile track record of India, bulk of strike formations poised
against Pakistan, its Pakistan specific Cold Start doctrine, its refusal to
resolve longstanding disputes of Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, its resort to
water terrorism to dry up Pakistan, its heavy involvement in FATA and
Balochistan, its efforts to isolate and strategically encircle Pakistan and make
it a failed state, it will be utterly foolish to suggest downgrading our
defensive effort. It is like joining hands with enemies of Pakistan and
fulfilling the long cherished desire of our arch enemy which misses no
opportunity to harm Pakistan. Willful misperceptions by a handful of misguided
politicians, journalists and pseudo intellectuals about defence budget to
misguide the people and to defame and undermine the Army must end. Its huge
sacrifices under extremely adverse conditions must be acknowledged and lauded.
The writer is a freelance columnist and a defence analyst Email: [email protected]