Pakistan increases defence budget

Islamabad : Pakistan yesterday announced it will once again increase its annual military budget by 11 per cent, even as security improves in the country which has fought Islamist and separatist insurgencies for more than a decade.

Finance minister Ishaq Dar informed parliament in his annual budget address that the country would provide 860 billion rupees ($8.6bn) to the armed forces during the 2016-17 financial year.

“The defence budget has been increased to 860bn rupees which is 11pc more than the last year,” Dar told parliament.

Pakistan also increased its defence budget by 11pc in 2015-16.

The government will also maintain a 100bn rupee ($1bn) grant for the rehabilitation of thousands of families who have been forced from their homes by the insurgency and military operations to uproot the militants from the country’s northwest.

Pakistan estimates it has lost more than 50,000 people and billions of dollars in revenue due to the ongoing war against extremism, while thousands of its families have been rendered homeless.