RAWALPINDI: Expressing confidence that the nation would cheerfully and magnanimously endorse the proposal for Rs 225 crores for defence in the next year’s Budget, as against Rs 136 crores in the original Budget estimates for the current year, [Finance Minister] Mr Shoaib said for Pakistan, which needed peace, “it was a matter of compulsion”.

He said in his Budget speech that the world still watched the subcontinent with anxiety and concern, seeking a reassurance and hoping that the flames of war would not engulf this region once again. Pakistan, he added, sincerely shared this concern but also hoped that the “world would show the same anxiety for a just and durable solution of the Kashmir issue which was the basic cause of tension in the subcontinent”.

He said Pakistan was a peace-loving nation and Islam enjoined upon Muslims to live in peace with their neighbours. Pakistan had no desire to settle issues through war and it was this spirit that led it to accept the cease-fire last September. This country earnestly needed peace so that it could fight poverty and disease and improve the lot of the common man. It would be tragic if our determined efforts towards peace were negated by any actions of our neighbour. Nothing could be more senseless than two poor countries like Pakistan and India entering into an arms race, Mr Shoaib observed.

He said Pakistan would welcome competition with India in ensuring a better living standard for the people rather than an arms build-up and it was for this reason that Pakistan had proposed a reduction of forces as one of the top items on the agenda for Ministerial level meetings with India. The choice, however, he said, was not entirely of Pakistan’s. With regard to defence preparations “what was a matter of choice for India became a matter of compulsion for Pakistan”.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2016