Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Society Military and Strategic Issues
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Gen Musharraf has said that the Armed Forces of Pakistan are being upgraded, keeping in view requirements for changing trends in global security and extremist issues.
What’s the exact nature of the upgrades wasn’t discussed. It could be an upgrade in command structure, in equipment, weapons and training or numbers. The last is least likely since the size was cut down some time ago.

http://dawn.com/2007/05/27/top6.htm

Armed forces being upgraded: president
KARACHI, May 26: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday asked all wings of the armed forces to be watchful of threats to national security from extremism and vested interests and said that defence forces were being upgraded to frustrate such designs.

Addressing officers of the three services at the Corps Auditorium here, Gen Musharraf said that an upgradation was being done under the Armed Forces Development Plan which was part of the national defence policy to enhance capabilities of the armed forces to thwart any designs against the country.

Declaring religious extremism the biggest internal threat to the country, Gen Musharraf said that misunderstanding and hatred were being created among the people in the name of Islam.

“We must discourage this (practice) to safeguard our future,” the president said and deplored that many of the mosques and madressahs were being misused for this purpose. He called upon the people to be aware of conspiracies by vested interests.

The president discussed both international and regional environment and Pakistan’s role in that context.

He noted that the regional situation demanded a highest-level vigilance and military preparedness and said the country was fully aware of these imperatives.

Gen Musharraf reiterated Pakistan’s non-aggressive designs against any country and the desire to seek peace with all. “Our desire of peace should not be misconstrued as a sign of weakness, it is a strategy of defensive deterrence,” he opined.

He declared that Pakistan sought a peaceful resolution to all disputes, including Kashmir, with its neighbours. “We are determined to defend the territorial integrity and solidarity of our country and our desire is reflected in capabilities of our armed forces,” he added.

Referring to the economic turnaround in the country, he said that due to consistent policy of the government, all socio-economic indicators had improved.

He asked the people to promote tolerance so that “we can pursue our policies and give to the country the place it deserves in the comity of nations”.

Corps Commander Lt-Gen Ahsan Azhar Hayat, COMKAR, AOC Southern Air Command, General Officers Commanding and other senior officers were present on the occasion.

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

seems like another convenient excuse to divert yet more of the Federal money away from more important issues. It's a pity that Pakistan spends 35-40% of it's federal budget on defence and a mere 1-2% on health and education.

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

So buddy, while having left your country and living in UK, you think those who chose to stay with her can defend it without spending dough?

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Who's saying don't spend on defence but we should spend atleast a fifth of our budget on education and health. Do we really need to spend more than a third of our budget on defence?

I have not left my country (my parents still live in Islamabad). I will surely return one day :)

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Holy Cow

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Ya we do.

Our Military is woefully obsolete.

Our Army has obsolete Tanks, Missile Launchers, Artillery, etc... These need to be upgraded and upgraded fast.

Our Air Force is mostly obsolete with aging F-16 along with old French and Chinese Fighters. They need to be replaced and upgraded.

Our Navy lacks the resources to defend Pakistan's coast. It needs to be upgraded as well.

Pakistan only spends 4 Billion on its Armed Forces every year. Iran spends close to 10 Billion.

Our Military Budget is quite low for a country our size and the aggressive enemies we face.

We need to streamline and increase our defense budget

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

^ again you are missing the point. My problem is only with spending a pathetic 1-2 % of the federal budget on education and health. It should be atleast 15-20% of the annual budget if we are serious about progressing as a nation

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

wow, reality check needed! :rolleyes:

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Who told you that Pakistan spends 35 to 40 percent of the budget on defence? Don’t you think that it would be better that a person first try to find out the reality before writing something?

Just to let you do your own research, can you please write down the breakdown of Pakistani budget? [both for 1999 and for today (2006 or comming 2007), just for comparison]. For instance, how much is budget (in rupees), what portion of that budget (in rupees and in percentage of budget) is spent on defence, how much of that budget is spent on different areas (in rupees and in percentage of budget), what threat Pakistan has from any hostile neighbouring countries and how much they spend in defence? Is Pakistani defence spending comparative and enough when compared to threats? How many people are employed in Pakistan forces and would it be a good policy to stop that employment opportunity to so many people, who mostly comes from Pakistani poor and from deprived area of Pakistan?

How much is Pakistan education and health budget (in rupees and in percentage of budget)? What it was in 1999 and how much it has increased/decreased today (in 2006 or coming 2007 budget) in rupees and in percentage of budget? How much of budget was used in 1999 on just interest payment in rupees and as percentage of budget and how much it is paid today? How much deficit financing was happening in 1999 and what is the percentage today?

How Pakistan economy is doing in 1999 and what it is today, for example, you can find out increase/decrease in tax collections (as that is one figure that represents economic progress over time) and other parameters, in dollars as well as rupees. What is the present going interest rate on government bonds, as higher interest rate means government needs finance when others do not trust to loan government, hence government increase interest rate to get loan. Increasing interest rate increases inflation and relationship is such that a person can almost work out real inflation by seeing how interest on government bonds are doing and what is the state of the economy (if it is developed, third world, medium industrial, industrialised country economy, oil producing rich economy, banana economy, etc. It can also tell the state of the economy and many other things as human pulse). Actually, in third world economy, interest rate is normally 2 to 4 percent above inflation (depending on budget deficit).

Can you please do some research and let us know? It would be appreciated and would also give some credit to whatever you write. That would be much better than firing bullets in thin air. IF not all figures, then atleast some of the figures would do ;). Thanks :)

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Fine. We do need to spend more on education, medicine and health. No doubt in that.

But look at your defence forces and those of the envisioned adversary. Compare your aircraft with hers, your army/navy hardware with hers.

We can't afford to woe on the military expenditures.

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

sa1eem don't be so obsessed with numbers. Forget the exact figures, yes we do need to upgrade our armed forces but the point is we spend peanuts on health and education.

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

No, you are mistaken on "defend"...cause whenever these soormas tried they failed miserably...rather it is to have the exclusive rights to screw the country and its masses over, so that they can have all the perks and privileges...

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

How does $4.4 billion for defence spending out of $25 billion (2006 budget) come to 35-40% of the total?

And you do realise, over a million people's jobs depend on defence?

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

^^ Ya Exactly

Here is the list of the World’s Top Defense Spending

1 United States 532,800,000,000 2007
2 United Kingdom[1] 66,100,000,000 2007
3 France 64,611,000,000 2007
4 Germany 57,500,000,000 2007
5 Japan 46,000,000,000 2007 (est.)
6 China 45,500,000,000 2007 (est.)
7 Russia 32,400,000,000 2007
8 Italy 32,093,537,000 2006 (est.)
9 Saudi Arabia 31,255,000,000 2006
10 India 21,330,000,000 2007
11 South Korea 21,050,000,000 2005
12 Australia[4] 18,200,000,000 2007
13 Spain 15,792,207,000 2006
14 Canada 15,267,891,500 2007
15 Turkey 11,492,161,000 2006 (est.)
16 Netherlands 10,369,920,000 2006 (est.)
17 Israel 9,444,000,000 2005
18 Brazil 9,940,000,000 2005
19 Taiwan 8,400,000,000 2006
20 Greece 7,648,561,000 2006 (est.)
21 Poland 7,262,500,000 2007
22 Singapore 7,053,000,000 2007
23 Mexico 6,070,000,000 2005
24 Sweden 5,700,000,000 2007
25 North Korea 5,000,000,000 2005
26 Iran 4,300,000,000 2005
27 Argentina 4,300,000,000 NA
28 Pakistan 4,253,000,000 2004

And Pakistan is number 28

!!!!!BATHROOM MAIN!!!!!
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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

What a trick from you, that list is not a percentage of annual budget, that is the total amount.

As Pakistan does not have much money to spend, that is why it is no 28.

Even so,as usual from a unreliable site such as Wiki, it is also wrong. You really think a medium size country like the UK spends more than Japan or China??

Easy for you to say spend more on tanks when you don’t even live here, and can’t see how bad a state the country is in. so easy for an armchair soldier living thousands of miles away

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

England does indeed spend more than Japan and China.

England's Air Force is among the most powerful in the world.

England has the 2nd most powerful Navy in the world after USA.

A great deal of England's defense budget goes to paying the soldiers and the soldiers are well paid.

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Well now that our economy is growing, we are getting military aid from USA, we can certainly afford to spend more on tanks and other equipments.

Siblings?
Siblings?
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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Thats still almost 20 percent...which is too high compared to any sane nation...

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

I'm glad money is being spent to upgrade Pakistani Military machine... the more the better the stronger. The hell with those who say we need to spend more on education and health... education and health for what use when we can't defend those that need health and education?

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Re: Armed forces being upgraded: Gen Musharraf

Fine. So you mean to say we cut down our defence budget, stay satisfied on our falling aircraft, obsolete tanks and hallucinate to beat our neighbour in any future conflict (acting sane)?