Sir ur spending roughly $2.5-3 billion on ur nuclear program every year dispite having a reasonable arsenal, don't u think even a 50% reduction in nuke funding could give a significant boost to ur education system...
But at the end of the day its ur money, if u wanna waste it on bombs rather than given primary education to children then i have no issues what so ever...
I totally agree that the alocation of funds is not appropriate in our country, sir. However, there is are several points that you are missing. Firstly, Pakistan has not reached a stable point in its political and hence social development, I point to Syed Abidi's excellent analyisis referring to Pakistan's political scene as a 'pendullum'. According to this hypothesis, there is a military coup every decade and the prime reasons for this are the a) lackluster performance of the politicians, b) an ambitious army with a percerived better performance, c) internal crises, and d) external pressure on Pakistan.
Taking this analysis further which has been proven correct for the past 65 years of our existence there would be another potential coup in the following decade. If we are to avoid that then we need to tackle the 4 most pertinent issues surrounding us and in my view the War on Terrorism must be number 1 on our list. Regarding that the money would go to defence development but the strengthening of the nuclear arm portrays a very deep, latent and dangerous fact in the Pakistani psyche: we are alone. To combat this, for now, investment and maintaince of a strong defence externally is extremely crucial; see, already the pipleline deal with Iran has stirred the US for sanctions and US sanctions have always hit us in the worse times (Z.A. Bhutto's era, the 90s and up coming; with a historically hostile Afghanistan to our West now) this aggrevates the Pakistani establishments, firstly, and secondly, ripens the cracks in the political life for a military takeover. If the the military is successfully deployed in an immediate stimulus that creates enough security for our static defence it is extremely good for us in the long run and that is what is needed.
Secondly, this argument is better left post-election but I would go into it anyways, is that now the parties especially PTI, have it in their political will to subdue the military; this would invariably lead to civilian control of the nuclear programme and a more diplomatic stance on our defence policies. This, however, must not be coerced onto the military as to the time that our police force, ideally, can come at par to the capabilities of the terrorists the military has to remain to act as the defece safeguard. For that the military needs to have sufficent fundings.
Along with that, I shall also tell you an insider secret, this War of nearly a decade has caused huge attrutition damage to our soldiers we really need to plan forward to take care of these affected soldiers and the civilians of the War but that would come post-victory.
Finally, the new cadre of PMA (I had extensive talks with them due to two of my friends being selected and proximity and a lot of free time!) is vehemently anti-Terror rather than anti-India (the traditional antagonist). This is a key variable for within 6 years or so these same people will be Captains. This, along with the decisive falling out of Talibans as friend view would show very positive effects in the coming 5 years which are crucial for us as a nation transitioning to democracy, conflict and possible external hostil policies.
With whom are you at war, sir? With yourselves?
Hey, Capt., always good to hear from you. No, sir, not with ourselves but with a hostile ideology and her offsprings.
