Govt spending budget on economic uplift: Tanveer

Minister for Defence Production, Rana Tanveer Hussain has said that India is carrying out anti-Pakistan agenda.

Speaking in Radio Pakistan's current affairs programme, he said Pakistan was a peaceful country and did not want to indulge in any arms race with India as the latter was increasing its defence budget every year. The Minister said that Pakistan was spending its budget on the economic development and welfare of people, while India was part of the 14 percent of global arms imports. He said Pakistan was not unaware of its defence needs and it had best army in the world.

Expert defence affairs Dr. Maria Sultan said, "India has emerged as the world's largest weapons importer in the world over a fiveyear period." United States and Russia were the largest exporters of the weapons in the world, she observed. An arms race had been started in the world, she said and added India wanted to be the global power but this would remain its dream.

There was 90% addition in India's weapon import capability which was the point of concern for other countries of the world, she noted. India had expressed disappointment over Obama administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets worth nearly $700 million to Pakistan, she added. Both India and Pakistan should resolve their issues through dialogue rather than to indulge in arms race, she suggested. This race, she said would result in destabilizing the power of balance in the region, she remarked. Senior analyst Dr. Khurram Iqbal said, "The peace research institute SIPRI has provided new data related to the international arms trade. Accordingly, the biggest exporter was the US, well ahead of Russia and India was the largest arms importer in the world, he said. Between 2011 and 2015, India was the only country to import more weapons, he added. In 2010-14, Russia supplied 70 per cent of India's arms imports, the US 12 per cent and Israel 7 per cent, he revealed. Continuing he said, imports in 2010-14 were 15 times higher than in 2005-2009 which included advanced weapons such as anti-submarine warfare aircraft.