The most important strategic objective for any country is the protection of its territory, citizens and assets against external and internal challenges that can undermine its stability. It is even more crucial for countries like Pakistan, which has a history of border disputes, fighting full scale wars against Indian aggression and unresolved geopolitical concerns like Kashmir with hostile neighbor at Eastern border and threat of influx of terrorism from the Western border, to prioritize national security as the most important strategic goal. For Pakistan, it is a requirement to retain sizable armed forces, develop infrastructure for them, and create new security mechanisms since 1947 in order to fend against external threats.
Pakistan has been facing significant threats from within and outside due to its geo-strategic location. One of Pakistan’s greatest threat remains India’s unyielding hostile posture towards the country. The region’s prevalent stability-instability paradigm often tilts more towards instability due to frequent provocations by India. India was a crucial player in the partition of East Pakistan in 1971 as it instigated and fueled insurgency virtue to it’s geographical proximity to the region and after developing nuclear weapons in 1974, it directly posed existential threat to Pakistan. By purchase and implementation of the most recent military equipment, India is continuously adding new capabilities to its armed forces in terms to increase its conventional defense. As a result, India now has a developing asymmetrical advantage over Pakistan, disrupting tactical balance of power in the subcontinent. This gives Pakistan no other alternative but to build and sustain a certain level of military capability in order to preserve balance of power. Despite impossible difficulty due to economic troubles in the country, Pakistan in sustaining its proclaimed Minimum Credible Deterrent. However, India’s rapid defense advancement have brought it up on Pakistan to opt for it’s own defense modernization to upgrade current military capabilities.
The tragedy of 9/11 gave birth to new actors (non-state) in the region. The threat of terrorism has kept Pakistan entrenched in an elaborate war against the regional spoiler with exhaustion of both human and material resources of the country costing over 80,000 lives and $126 billion in finances. In return of this huge sacrifice by the country, Pakistan Army has managed to eliminate around 18,000 terrorists – bringing the militant group to extinction in Pakistan. It was due to the trust of nation and professionalism of Pakistan Army; the country has not only successfully defeated the menace of terrorism but has also left them devoid of any physical operational base in Pakistan.
The sudden rise in critique of Pakistan’s defense spending is the result of misunderstandings regarding the extended role of military in providing security to the state. Many argue that Pakistan as a developing nation, should prioritize health and education spending above bolstering its military power. It’s a frequent fallacy that Pakistan spends between 70% to 80% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense. Statistically, less than 3% of Pakistan’s GDP is being spent on defense-related expenses, while 13% and 34% of total GDP were allocated to education and health sectors respectively. Defense expenditures in Pakistan now amount to PKR 1523 billion, or 17.5% of all government spending and 2.2% of GDP. Contrary to popular belief, Pakistan’s defense spending declined from 2.8% of GDP to 2.2% of GDP in the fiscal year 2022–2023 after taking inflation and currency devaluation into account.
Pakistan spends around $11 billion on defense, compared to India’s more than 70 billion annually. As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports, Indian defense budget for fiscal year 2022-23 could surpass the United Kingdom and Russian budget, that may stand at around $80 billion and become world’s third largest military budget after United States and China. According to Pakistani expert at the Australian National University, Claude Rakisits, “Pakistan’s economic situation is in dire straits. This makes it difficult for the government to buy new hardware or even plan ahead for new acquisitions.”
Pakistan Army’s main goal is to ensure the security of nation from external as well as internal threats in a defensive manner. In such demanding times, it is imperative for the nation to develop understanding of the operations and requirements of the defense sector and the importance of maintaining credible minimum deterrence in the South Asian region. Pakistan Army has always rendered support and sacrifices for well-being of nation and its people and will continue to do so till the end of times. We as nation need to understand that “if your army is not there, some other country’s army will be there”.
