Paucity of funds stalls construction of new GHQ

The construction work of new Army General Headquarter at Islamabad has been stalled due to shortage of funds. However, the project would be completed as per plan conceived at the beginning when Islamabad
was declared capital, Additional Secretary Ministry of Defence informed media on Monday.

He said this while addressing a seminar on defence budget organised by the Defence Committee of the Senate for the defence correspondents at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services here. Media manual on defence budget was distributed among the participants.

Additional Secretary Ministry of Defence Air Vice Marshal Arshad Qadoos said the construction work of new GHQ was planned along with the Headquarters of two services - Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy. He said the Ministry of Defence is engaged with the Ministry of Finance in giving final touches to defence budget for 2014-15 which is likely to be announced in national budget on May 6, 2014.

Additional Secretary maintained that the major proportion of defence budget has been spent on employees-related expenses. The defence budget is around 17 percent of the total layout of national budget in the past. He urged the defence budget of the country is lower as compared to other countries' defence outlay. "Pakistan ranks 33rd in world military spending while India 8th. Growing inflation is one factor that increases the defence budget and fuel prices further burden the allocation of defence budget, he added.

Committee Member Senator Farhatullah Babar said it was unprecedented for the country that a Finance Minister himself went to GHQ for consultation on defence budget. He said the main problem was that the budget was conceived in the context of national security strategy which itself is a paradigm of military rather than the parliament. He added to have far effective parliamentary oversight of the defence budget, parliamentarians must improve their capacity, competence and provide an example of good governance.

He said the security establishment's vast network of industrial, commercial and business enterprises throughout the country had been kept out of the public and parliamentary discourse and called upon the members of parliament to equip themselves with knowledge and expertise to be able to exercise rigorous oversight of MILBUS. The MILBUS has not only been kept out of the public view and parliamentary oversight but has also escaped government accountability, he said. There is need to look into state subsidies and other support provided to these entities including Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust, Shaheen Foundation, Bahria Foundation, Frontier Works Organisation, National Logistic Cell and scores of others organisations and examine their adverse impact on the growth of free market economy.

On the formulation of national security policies, Mushahid Hussain said that it was necessary for the parliament to lead it with ideas, issues and initiatives. For this, they must have the competence, capacity, vision and the political will, he added. He said the most important decision regarding defence and national security in the history of Pakistan, namely, going nuclear, was made by civilian leaders, and the nuclear programme, since its inception, was led by a 3-men committee, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, A G N Kazi and Agha Shahi.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said that a number of problems pertaining to harmony between 'Khaki' and 'Mufti' can be removed if there was a full time, dedicated defence ministry which would then be the bridge so as to perform professional responsibilities in a better manner.

On the issue of civilian casualties or what is termed as 'collateral damage', Senator Mushahid said he raised the issue during his visit to the Nato Headquarters and was then informed that there is a special contingency fund for this, but no government has so far requested for this fund to be utilised for rehabilitation and relief of affected families.

He regretted that there had been no genuine defence minister in Pakistan who could frame a defence policy. He said only dummy defence ministers were appointed and remarked that even the present one is also a 'part-time' defence minister. Ronny Heine, Resident Representative, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung said it was a good attempt of defence committee to provide opportunity to media and parliamentarians to debate on the defence budget.