Pakistan Army | News and Discussions

[BetterPakistan]

You're mistaken

ISLAMABD: Defense budget has been jacked up to Rs700. 2 billion for the 2014-15 fiscal year fiscal year beginning on July 1, compared with Rs 627.2 billion allocated in the outgoing fiscal year, showing an increase of Rs 73 billion.

The military, however, had sought an increase of Rs 173 billion in defence spending for the coming fiscal year.

Military officials defended the increase insisting that Pakistan military’s expanses are lowest in the region given the volatile security environment.

The budget document presented before the parliament did not give a break up about the allocation of defence spending among the three forces.

But according to defence ministry officials, out of the whole defence budget, Pakistan Army gets 48 per cent while 20pc goes to Pakistan Air force and Navy’s share is 10pc.

According to the budget document 2014-15, out of that Rs 700.2 billion, Rs 293.5 billion have been allocated for employees related expenses, Rs 180.2 billion for operating expenses and Rs 152.8 billion have been earmarked for physical assets.

However, the figures do not include Rs 163.4 billion allocated for pensions of the military personnel that would be given from the civilian budget and a separate allocation for the security related expenses in a move, which critics say seeks to conceal the actual defense budget.

In addition to this, military would also be given Rs 165 billion under the contingent liability and Rs 85 billion under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

This means that in reality a whopping Rs 1113 billion has been allocated for the military, which is about 28.2 percent of the country’s total budget.

I found it on Express tribune but fellow my question is different. It's, do army prepare their tanks,aircraft carriers, nuclear missiles, weapons etc in this budget or govt pay more for this?

 

[fatman17]

ISLAMABD: Defense budget has been jacked up to Rs700. 2 billion for the 2014-15 fiscal year fiscal year beginning on July 1, compared with Rs 627.2 billion allocated in the outgoing fiscal year, showing an increase of Rs 73 billion.

The military, however, had sought an increase of Rs 173 billion in defence spending for the coming fiscal year.

Military officials defended the increase insisting that Pakistan military’s expanses are lowest in the region given the volatile security environment.

The budget document presented before the parliament did not give a break up about the allocation of defence spending among the three forces.

But according to defence ministry officials, out of the whole defence budget, Pakistan Army gets 48 per cent while 20pc goes to Pakistan Air force and Navy’s share is 10pc.

According to the budget document 2014-15, out of that Rs 700.2 billion, Rs 293.5 billion have been allocated for employees related expenses, Rs 180.2 billion for operating expenses and Rs 152.8 billion have been earmarked for physical assets.

However, the figures do not include Rs 163.4 billion allocated for pensions of the military personnel that would be given from the civilian budget and a separate allocation for the security related expenses in a move, which critics say seeks to conceal the actual defense budget.

In addition to this, military would also be given Rs 165 billion under the contingent liability and Rs 85 billion under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

This means that in reality a whopping Rs 1113 billion has been allocated for the military, which is about 28.2 percent of the country’s total budget.

I found it on Express tribune but fellow my question is different. It's, do army prepare their tanks,aircraft carriers, nuclear missiles, weapons etc in this budget or govt pay more for this?

Article is misleading for example CSF are payments for money spent on the WOT ops. How can pensions be considered as defence budget. As l said the actual money available is 700 billion.

 

[BetterPakistan]

Article is misleading for example CSF are payments for money spent on the WOT ops. How can pensions be considered as defence budget. As l said the actual money available is 700 billion.

Okay,

But the question is again the same. Do you have the answer for this question below:-

Do army prepare their tanks,aircraft carriers, nuclear missiles, weapons etc in this Rs 700 billion budget or govt pay more for this?

 

[fatman17]

Okay,

But the question is again the same. Do you have the answer for this question below:-

Do army prepare their tanks,aircraft carriers, nuclear missiles, weapons etc in this Rs 700 billion budget or govt pay more for this?

Yes this budget is for maintenance of the weapons systems and daily expenses.

 

[fatman17]

Saudis to press Pakistan for more troops

Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad

Saudi Arabia is to press Pakistan to boost the number of its troops in the kingdom to help bolster Riyadh’s defences against Islamist militants, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as Isis.

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, landed in Riyadh on Wednesday and met King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

While diplomats stress the close ties between the countries, Mr Sharif’s trip — his third this year — comes amid profound challenges facing the bilateral relationship, not least the continued flow of funds from rich patrons in Saudi Arabia to Islamist hardliners within Pakistan.

The countries’ close relationship has been built on common security interests dating back to the 1970s, when the Saudi oil boom created employment for a large number of Pakistanis. Islamabad deepened the relationship in the ensuing years by assuming responsibility for some of Saudi Arabia’s internal security needs.

“Saudi Arabia is both a friend and a source of a continuing problem,” said a senior Pakistani official ahead of Mr Sharif’s departure. “This relationship provides opportunities and challenges.”

It is not clear how many Pakistani troops there are in Saudi Arabia, although it is understood the numbers deployed are modest. And analysts say Islamabad is cautious about broadening its security relationship with Riyadh.

“There is uncertainty in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia deals with the wider Islamic State-related challenge,” says Mahmud Durrani, a former national security adviser to the prime minister’s office. “Pakistan has to be careful to avoid getting embroiled in a relationship with the Saudis which only exposes us to new controversies.”

Riyadh has grown more anxious about security after the takeover of Yemen by Shia Houthi rebels, say western diplomats who have followed the Saudi-Pakistan discussions over the past year. “The Saudis are very keen to boost their security apparatus, and Pakistan as a friend with a history of services to the kingdom is of great interest,” said one.

Saudi Arabia — like Pakistan — faces a rising Sunni jihadi threat, while many accuse the government of having turned a blind eye to domestic preachers whose ideology underpins such groups. Private Saudi donations to Islamist extremist groups continue despite government attempts to stem the flow of cash.

Riyadh, which confronted a domestic al-Qaeda insurgency in 2003-2006, is concerned about Isis militants in Syria and Iraq seeking to target the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has built a defensive security fence along its border with Iraq, but Isis militants managed to breach the border in January.

The Saudi-Pakistan defence relationship developed in the 1970s, when Pakistan’s military dictator General Zia ul-Haq sent thousands of troops for security duties in the kingdom after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

“In the 1980s, the Saudis were keen to keep Pakistani troops as this helped counter the Iranian threat,” says one former Pakistani army general who served in the kingdom. “For the Saudis, the relationship with Pakistan guarantees both against internal dissent and external threats.”

The relationship strengthened in 1998 when Saudi Arabia began giving oil to Pakistan to help the country overcome the effect of international financial sanctions following its maiden nuclear tests. The arrangement lasted almost three years.

More recently in early 2014, Saudi Arabia lent $1.5bn to Pakistan to shore up the country’s foreign reserves after a visit to Islamabad by then crown prince Salman. The full terms of the loan were not revealed, although Pakistani finance ministry officials said at the time the loan was interest-free.

Analysts warn that it would be overly optimistic of Saudi Arabia to expect large-scale deployments of troops from its neighbour amid a heightened domestic security challenge highlighted by the Taliban massacre of 150 people, mostly school children, in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar late last year. “Right now, we need our manpower at home as Pakistan deals with its own security challenges,” says Ikram Sehgal, a defence analyst.

But Mr Sehgal says Pakistan may seek to meet the Saudi request halfway, for example by sending fewer troops but for a longer-term deployment, with possible pledges of a quick reaction force if needed.

“Given the way this relationship has evolved, Pakistan is in no shape to go for an outright refusal to the Saudis,” he says. “A via media of some kind will have to be found which satisfies the Saudis without compromising Pakistan’s own interests.”

Additional reporting by Simeon Kerr

 

[fatman17]

Funeral of major gulfam and capt Bilal. They gave their lives so that we can sleep in our beds knowing that they are standing on the wall.
RIP brave soldiers

 

[fatman17]

Lt Col lkram Ul Haq shaheed.

 

[fatman17]

23rd March years gone by

 

[IrbiS]

Major is smiling even after being seriously wounded

 

[fatman17]

Winning is Hard, Banal Work

by Ejaz Haider


The Pakistan Day parade is a good move, but the military still has a lot of work to do.

On March 23, Pakistan saw its Republic Day military parade after a seven-year hiatus. This long gap was not without reasons. The military, stressed and stretched thin, doesn’t have the time for ceremonial preparedness, fighting as it is a terrible conflict, and a large gathering like Pakistan Day requires a big cost in terms of security arrangements against an enemy that is always lurking in the shadows.

But it was not always like this. The military was, in fact, big on ceremonies. To its own detriment.

When we got into the current mess, popularly called the ‘war on terror’, the Pakistani military had, for the most part, lost its edge. It was focused more on ceremonies, parades and other non-combat activities. Its training had become traditional, both in the realm of theory as well as in the field. The same old manuals were hashed and rehashed. New thinking and innovation, difficult at the best of times in a large-scale bureaucratic organization, were dead. Covert operations were fought by non-state proxies whose ability to innovate, motivate and fight steadily inclined over more than three decades.

That changed with 9/11. The world, led by the United States, came knocking at our door. Overnight, the proxies became a threat. Their agenda, we suddenly realized, exceeded our national interest, a concept grounded in acceptance of a nation-state and sustained through Realist policies, not ideologies, especially not the millenarian kind.

The military got into mortal combat with the proxies and found that while its own training had suffered, it had trained the proxies too well. Result: the military got bludgeoned, sustaining high casualties and losing large swathes of territory to terrorist groups. To its credit, today, it is a far more efficient fighting machine than when this war began. It has learnt to innovate. It has developed new fighting techniques, can use the terrain much better, and has shed its ceremonial pomp for the simplicity and rigor of training. As the adage goes, the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

I have never been big on ceremonies and parades. Granted, they are a part of military life; granted also that some ceremonies are important. But it is one thing to use the device and symbolism of ceremonies sparingly and, therefore, effectively and quite another to sacrifice combat training for plumed pomp and ceremonial strutting.

On Aug. 14, 2012, I was invited to the Pakistan Military Academy. Apparently, some PMA commandant had sold the idea of an Azaadi Parade to then Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani. Kayani liked the idea and voila!

I was unimpressed. The parade was great. Parades at PMA are always the best. This is what I wrote at the time:

“…one has to ask the question of why we need another parade at PMA when the institution already has two designated passing out parades in a year. The parade was good, choreographed to a tee. But that is precisely the point: it takes a month-and-half to two months to make it so good, from getting the drill movements right to making all the administrative arrangements. Those daily rehearsals cut into training time.

“And training time is a life-saver, given that we are at war. Consider the contrast: PMA offers two years of infantry training to all cadets. Those who join infantry regiments then go for a six-month Young Officers Basic Course at the School of Infantry and Tactics. Some, as from other arms too, would go on to the Special Service Group. Another nine months. All told, this is more than three years. The Taliban are producing a quality fighter in four to six months with map-reading, signals and field engineering skills, field craft, weapons handling, etc. This is no time to be ceremonial.

“The state is not responding well at any level: motivation, clarity of purpose, operational capabilities, effective intelligence and pre-emption. The war, after a lull, is about to ramp up. The state cannot afford enervation if it doesn’t want to lose.”

The war has ramped up. And there is more to come. The threat we face is protean. It thrives on an idea. The military is much better geared today than it was when the conflict began, though it has to remain vigilant and not rest on any laurels. It has to continue to innovate. In fact, it must reward new thinking and discourage inertia.

Yet, it was important to have the March 23 parade. I would consider this year’s parade as the most significant in our short history. It was motivating and motivation is important for winning wars. Especially a war where the zones of war and peace are one, where a civilian is as exposed, perhaps more, to the ravages of this conflict than those in uniform. This is why I enjoyed this year’s parade more than I did those that I grew up watching, notwithstanding a child’s enthusiasm.

But before I sign off, there’s another point that must not be missed. This is a war where the use of force by the military is just one component of the overall national effort. Since the worst of this war will be seen and fought in the cities, the heartland of Pakistan, it is the police that must be in the frontline. So far, we have not seen much progress in that direction. Unlike the military’s, police’s work is unsexy but far more crucial to winning this conflict. Motivation is important but it must not make us complacent. Most military hardware we saw at the Islamabad parade is useless against an elusive enemy. We shouldn’t get carried away. The most effective tools, in theory, should be possessed by a police force that performs discriminatory, intelligence-based operations, operations that are not about military pomp and pageantry. They are silent but effective, away from plumed glory.

And since this war is about an idea, use of force alone will never translate into utility of force. It must be backed by a narrative. But that’s another topic.

Let the pageantry motivate us but let us not forget that winning is about hard, banal work.

 

[fatman17]

Pakistan holds military parade After 7-Year Break

By Usman Ansari


ISLAMABAD — Pakistan held its first Republic Day parade Monday after a seven-year break caused by the security situation and operational commitments due to the war against the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) and it's allies.

Though large-scale terrorist attacks are no longer as frequent, Operation Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP is ongoing, and recent days have seen fierce clashes in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency near the Afghan-Pak border as the Army fights to regain territory from the Lashkar-i-Islam terrorist group.

The parade was an annual event commemorating the calling for an independent state in 1940 and the day Pakistan was declared a republic in 1956, but was last held in 2007.

Security was very tight for the parade which was carried out in a new purpose-built parade ground. Parts of the city were cordoned off and the mobile phone network disabled.

Brian Cloughley, former Australian defense attache to Islamabad, said these measures were expected.

"I've been going to these parades for a very long time — first I think in 1980. And while there was always security, there was no threat then in any way comparable to what exists now. Today there would have been no possibility of parading along Jinnah Avenue for hours as in the past," he said.

Jinnah Avenue is one of the city's main thoroughfares. Security concerns in 2007 shifted the parade to nearby Jinnah Stadium before it was suspended.

Cloughley said holding the parade again this year was intended to send a message.

"It seems that the government wanted the parade to go ahead to try to make the point that the fight against internal terrorism is being won. It's certainly a step in the right direction, but it by no means indicates that the campaign is anywhere near over. It was a good PR exercise."

But he said he does not think holding the parade indicates more healthy military finances.

The parade has previously featured new defense equipment. The first public appearance of the JF-17 Thunder multirole combat aircraft was in the 2007 parade.

A number of defense systems were seen in public for the first time at this year's parade. These included the FM-90 surface-to-air missile, Karakorum Eagle and Saab Erieye AEW&C aircraft, the A100E/AR1 300mm multiple launch rocket system, the AS550 Fennec helicopter, and the Nasr multiple tactical nuclear missile system.

Also taking part were some of the VCC-1 and VCC-2 armored personnel carriers. They are Italian variants of the venerable M-113, which is in service with the Army and also produced by state-owned Heavy Industries Taxila.

Italy transferred nearly 600 surplus VCC-1 and VCC-2 APCs to Pakistan last year.

The Fennec was reportedly the cause of dispute between Airbus Helicopters and Pakistan, and its operational status was unclear among analysts for some time.

However, in addition to records showing that unguided rockets were tendered for the type, its inclusion in the Army aviation flyover proves it is operational. The ones on display, however, appeared to have their roof-mounted FLIR sensor removed.

It was announced that the helicopter undertakes convoy protection duties, an important task in the operations against the TTP.

The Burraq unmanned combat air vehicle, which is at least heavily influenced by the Chinese CASC Rainbow CH-3 if not a locally built version, overflew the parade venue armed with two laser guided missiles. A film of it being tested was released by the military's Inter Services Public Relations media arm earlier this month.

The FM-90 SAM is a Chinese development of the French Crotale. The Crotale had been in service with the Pakistan Air Force until it was replaced by the Italian MBDA Spada 2000 from 2010.

There were noted absences, however, including the Shaheen III medium-range ballistic missile, which was tested for the first time earlier this month, and the Chinese CAIC WZ-10 helicopter gunship, three of which were provided to Pakistan free of cost earlier this month.

Analyst Usman Shabbir of the Pakistan Military Consortium think tank said this was to be expected, but said it is "too early to tell" if the WX-10 will replace the long serving Bell AH-1F Cobras.

"The Army will put [the WZ-10s] into actual combat use and based on that we might go for more," he said.

Mansoor Ahmed, who lectures at Quaid-e-Azam University's Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, says the absence of Shaheen III was to be expected as it is a new system that has only been tested once.

He drew attention to some of the other systems on display.

"Two systems displayed are of particular importance as they reflect Pakistan's emerging nuclear posture: the Babur [land attack cruise missile] and the Nasr [short-range ballistic missile]. Both are dual-use mobile systems designed for counterforce strikes against a variety of high-value enemy targets with precision."

Adding, "The fact that the Nasr was displayed for the first time, in a quad missile configuration designed for salvo launch, shows that the system has been integrated into the strategic forces."

He also highlighted the induction of the FM-90 SAM by the Army's air defense as "it shows that [the Army] is moving to plug this critical gap and is a recognition of the evolving nature of threat posed by a massive force modernization by the [Indian Air Force]."

Email: uansari@defensenews.com

 

[nomi007]

us bahadur maa ko salam
zis ne itna bahadur larka paida kya

 

[fatman17]

None but the brave

 

[fatman17]

First Republic Day parade held in 1948

 

[AsifIjaz]

Nomi .. excellent sharing.... its a humble request to please share similar letters or writings. I am compiling same and would like to share them with my son and my nephews..
we should teach our next generation of what has been lost for their peacfull nights.