|
Pakistan
To Increase Defense Budget
 |
|
"The
defense requirements could not be fulfilled without taking some more
steps in the forthcoming budget," says Pakistani Finance Minister
Shaukat Aziz. |
By
Aamir Latif, IOL South Asia correspondent
LAHORE,
March 8 (IslamOnline) - Pakistan hinted Friday at increasing the country's
defense budget in view of the heightened tension on border and a
"phenomenal" increase in arch-rival India’s defense budget.
"The
defense requirements could not be fulfilled without taking some more steps in
the forthcoming budget," said Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz at a seminar
organized by Pakistan's Englisg Dailt The Nation in Lahore.
However,
the finance minister ruled out the imposition of war tax in the budget.
The
Pakistani government has negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
to tackle the problem of budget deficit, if there is any, in the wake of such
increase in the defense budget, Aziz added.
Emphasizing
that economic reforms saved the country from the fallout of the incidents like
September 11 and recent border tension with India, the minister said some of the
opinion-making circles are of the view that India escalated the border tension
only to create further problems for Pakistan’s economy.
“However,
the economic indicators suggest a different story as dollar went further down
and the foreign reserves went up,” he said.
The
government is fully prepared to meet the defense expenditures in the next budget
and there will be no compromise on the country’s security, he added.
Aziz
said Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharaf, had recently formed a
commission at the central level to identify and remove the top-10 problems in
different sectors to create an environment suitable for the growth of the
private sector.
“This
commission consists of the federal ministers of commerce, privatization, oil
& gas, the finance ministers of all the four provinces, besides
representation from the privatization sector,” he concluded.
|
