ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), Pakistan’s top economic body, has approved a supplementary grant of around $160 million for defense projects in the current fiscal year, the Pakistani finance ministry said on Thursday.
The statement came after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presided over a meeting of the ECC, at which decisions were made regarding special allowances for the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), Anti-Rabies Vaccine, and other matters.
Pakistan’s defense budget consistently attracts media attention due to the military’s substantial role in both the political and economic arenas of the country. The allocation of significant funds to defense sparks debates over the balance between security needs and other critical public services, such as education and health care.
“The ECC also considered and approved a proposal submitted by the Defense Division for a TSG amounting to Rs45 billion ($160 million) for various already approved projects of defense services during CFY 2024-25,” the finance ministry said on Thursday.
The development came weeks after the government approved Rs60 billion ($215 million) supplementary grants for Operation Azm-e-Istehkam to root out militancy from the country, apart from a 17.5 percent increase in the overall defense budget in June to Rs2.12 trillion ($6.15 billion) in view of the country’s security needs.
The ECC considered and approved a proposal for increase in the rate of special allowance (equal to 20 daily allowances) for employees of the ANF paramilitary force to bring it at par with other federal law enforcement agencies (LEAs), according to the finance ministry.
“The impact of revision to the tune of Rs. 264.744 million ($950,000) in DA rates for the ANF employees would be met from within the current year’s sanctioned budget,” it said.
Media coverage and public discussions about the defense budget also reflect concerns about transparency, with governments only mentioning the overall figure without sharing further details.
Last month, Dr. Kaiser Bengali, a prominent Pakistani economist who resigned from the government’s high-powered austerity committee in August, noted among several observations that the answer to addressing Pakistan’s large budget deficit lied in reducing the government’s expenditures, including non-combat defense spending.
