Pakistan on Saturday decided to increase its defence budget by 17 per cent in the next fiscal — beginning July 1 — as the government attached top-most priority to national security in the Budget for 2010-11.
Unveiling the Budget, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh — who was elevated to the ministerial berth from the office of Prime Minister's Finance Adviser just hours before the Budget presentation — stressed the need for Parliament to send across a message to the security personnel that the House was with them.
As against Rs.378.13 billion allocated for defence in 2009-10, the defence budget has gone up to Rs.442.2 billion. Though traditionally Pakistan's defence establishment has been focused on India, security analysts insist that the focus now is more on the war on terror; not just along its western borders with Afghanistan but also within the country. As a result, the Budget also makes a sizable allocation for maintaining law and order within the country.
This apart, Mr. Shaikh underscored the need for austerity and has proposed a 10 per cent cut in the salaries of all Federal Ministers while ordering an upward pay revision for government employees.
Austerity measures
Besides proposing changes in the Income-Tax regime, the Minister also made out a case for targeted subsidies to facilitate revenue generation that would allow the government to do more for the have nots.
