In Pahalgam, only four terrorists were enough to disrupt peace and prompt Pakistan to erect a militarized model of economy. Despite celebrating having won the four-day war against India, Pakistan has announced to increase of around 20 percent in its defence budget, compared to the past. That is, an allocation of 2.55 trillion rupees ($9 billion) amounting to 1.97 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product, up from 1.7 percent in the previous budget.

The Irony is that the military budget has already been doubled in the past five years. In the fiscal year 2020-21, the allocation stood at Rs 1.28 trillion ($4.53 billion), which is now touching the figure of $9 billion. Pakistan is fast forgetting the developmental model of the economy. The supra-irony is that, currently, Pakistan is at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund, which approved $7 billion for a 37-month loan program. Around a $1.5 billion tranche is released a year to help Pakistan sustain itself economically.

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Pakistan’s enormous increase in defence budget is unnecessary for two reasons: First, the increase in defence budget will compromise the growth of social developmental sectors, including health, education, social welfare, public works, etc. Second, the increase in the defence budget will not help Pakistan match the huge defence spending of India. The net gain will be nothing but appeasing the ego. Above all, most additional money allocated to defence is bound to land in international military markets, which are trained to entice buyers into buying their products. Bread snatched from........

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