ISLAMABAD: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar on Tuesday backed return of former military dictator General (R) Pervez Musharraf, saying that the top military leadership’s stance is to bring the ailing former president, who has been living in Dubai since 2106, back to Pakistan in view of his critical medical condition.
Speaking to a local TV channel on Tuesday, the chief military spokesperson said that the family of the former military ruler had been approached but added that the final decision to bring back Musharraf from UAE will be taken by his family and doctors.
“We have contacted his family. Once his family responds, we can make the required arrangements,” the military’s spokesperson said as he prayed for Musharraf’s speedy recovery.
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif also said last week he believed that no hurdles should be placed if the former dictator wanted to come back to Pakistan.
Musharraf, 78, is critically ill these days as he is suffering from a condition called amyloidosis, his office said Friday.
Last week, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) — the political party established by Musharraf — said that he was taken back to his residence after three weeks of being admitted to the hospital, refuting the news of his death or him being on a ventilator.
Pakistan-China ties hold strategic importance
The military’s spokesperson further highlighted that the Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s visit to China was very important and added that China has played a crucial role in increasing Pakistan’s defence prowess.
Maj Gen Iftikhar emphasised that ties between Islamabad and Beijing held “strategic importance” and were crucial for regional peace.
He also stated that the security of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects has remained unaffected, adding that the work related to the project’s security has been happening round the clock.
Defence Budget
Maj-Gen Babar also defended the defence budget allocation for the fiscal year 2022-23, contrary to perception, had decreased after factors such as inflation and rupee depreciation were accounted for, and was now 2.2 per cent of the GDP from 2.8pc last year.
In the budget presented by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Friday, defence services were allocated Rs1,523 billion, which makes up 17.5pc of the total current expenditure and is 11.16pc higher than last year. In terms of expenditure, the defence budget is 16pc of the government’s planned total outlay — exactly the same as it was a year before.
The declared increase in defence budget was in sharp contrast to the cuts in spending on the development sector (11pc), health (31pc), education (1.5pc) and housing (77pc).
The allocation makes up nearly 1.94pc of the GDP and 16pc of the total expenditure planned by the government for the next year. The hike is almost at par with the average inflation calculated for the year ending on June 30.
However, in a TV interview, DG Iftikhar defended the budgetary allocation for defence and denied that it has seen an increase.
He said there was an “annual debate” on army’s allocation when asked about the allocations. He said the defence budget was allocated considering the army’s “threat perception, challenges, deployment and the resources available”.
“So [after] considering at all these things, the army hasn’t had any [net] increase in the budget since 2020,” the DG ISPR claimed.
“When you look at inflation and rupee depreciation, it (defence budget) was actually reduced. It was 2.8pc of GDP last year and now we are at 2.2pc so the budget is continuously going down in GDP terms.”
He said that after factoring in this year’s inflation, the defence budget had actually taken a hit of Rs100bn. “Despite these challenges, we did not allow any shortcoming in our capabilities,” Iftikhar added.
Elaborating on the measures taken by the army to curb its spending, he said instructions had been passed to conserve fuel and reduce expenditure on utilities, while Friday would be observed as a “dry day” where no official transport would be used except for emergencies.
DG Iftikhar further said the army had returned to the government Rs6bn from Covid allotments and Rs3.5bn from other allotments in last year’s budget.
NSC was told no conspiracy was unearthed
The military’s spokesperson lamented that propaganda was initiated against the army and the military leadership on social media.
Speaking about the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, the DG ISPR said that the military leadership was present in the meeting and the participants were clearly briefed.
“[They were] briefed that there was no conspiracy or evidence of any kind [against the then government], nothing like that happened. Participants were told in detail that there was no evidence of any conspiracy,” said the DG ISPR.
India lobbied to get Pakistan blacklisted
On the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) plan, the DG ISPR avoided commenting on it but maintained that “New Delhi had lobbied to get Pakistan blacklisted”.
On the implementation of FATF’s points, the DG ISPR shared that the government formed a special cell in 2019. In this special cell, a coordination mechanism was formed between different department’s ministries and agencies, he added.
“This special cell formulated a complete action plan and all departments, ministries and agencies implemented it. The cell worked day and night to develop an effective strategy for money laundering and terror financing, which was implemented by all departments,” said Maj Gen Iftikhar.
The DG ISPR said that because of the cell this legislation was done and Pakistan implemented FATF’s 26 points out of 27. He also added that the legislation helped Pakistan recover Rs58 billion.
