By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan has decided to increase its defence budget for fiscal 2010-11 by Rs.100 billion ($1.2 billion) to Rs.443 billion due to the additional expenditure caused by the war against terrorism, a media report Monday said.
The effective increase, however, will be only Rs.65 billion as the government had sanctioned an additional Rs.35 billion over the Rs.343 billion that had been allocated for fiscal 2009-10 that ends June 30, the SAMAA private TV channel reported.
It quoted an official document as saying that the increase in the defence budget was necessitated by the increase in the salaries and allowances of armed forces personnel and for purchasing new equipment.
The budget for fiscal 2010-11 is expected to be presented in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, in the first week of June.
Pakistan’s armed forces have been in action for over a year now against the Taliban in the country’s restive northwest.
The operations began in the Lower Dir area of the North West Frontier Province, now renamed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, in April 2009 and then spread to Upper Dir, Buner and the Swat Valley.
Within six months, the military had managed to push the militants into their strongholds in South Waziristan and the focus shifted to this region in October 2009. The military is now preparing to go into the North Waziristan region.