PM Imran Khan lauds Pakistan Military for voluntarily cutting defence budget

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday lauded the "unprecedented voluntary initiative of stringent cuts" by the Pakistan armed forces, in view of the country's critical financial situation.

The prime minister was particularly appreciative of the armed forces' decision, in view of the "multiple security challenges" confronting the nation.

In an unprecedented move for the betterment of national economy, Pakistan’s armed forces have decided to not to receive an increased share under defence budget.

Prime Minister's commending remarks came through a tweet in the wake of the decision by the armed forces not to seek increase in their budget.

Reports suggest the armed forces have also decided to forego some of its development programme, besides cuts in other allowances.

Imran Khan, who earlier in the day chaired a meeting to review the preparations for the national budget 2019-20, said the government would divert "the money saved on development of merged tribal areas & Balochistan.

Soon after PM Imran's  words,  Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor  tweeted: "Voluntary cut in def budget for a year will not be at the cost of def & security. We shall maint effective response potential to all threats.Three services will manage impact of the cut through appropriate internal measures. It was imp to participate in dev of tribal areas & Bln."

On the other hand, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry termed the move as an example of strong civil-military coordination to take out the country from severe crisis in term of governance and economy.

The minister said in his Twitter message, "Not a small step at all, only a strong Civil-Mily Coordination can rescue Pakistan from the deep problems of Governance and economy … shows a complete trust on the leadership of PM by an important institution."