Pakistani Defence Sum Rises

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 17

Pakistani Defence Sum Rises

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) RAWALPINDI, June 13. Pakistan has allotted 40 per cent of next year’s total Budget to defence—an increase of 12 per cent on last year, the Finance Minister, Mohammed Shoaib, announced in the National Assembly on Saturday. He said the defence Budget of 2250 million rupees

(£l6Bm) was partly due to India’s mounting defence spending. Pakistan’s 1966-1967 Budget is being critically watched by countries aiding her third five-year plan. The amount it spends on defence is reported to be the deciding factor in resumption of aid from America, which has halted a large part of its aid to Pakistan since last September’s border war with India. Shoaib said Pakistan’s defence Budget doubled last year when she fought a 17day war with India. Record Development Shoaib’s total Budget called for a record development expenditure of £652m for the coming fiscal year. He said the Budget would sustain the development envisaged in the third five-year (1965-70) plan without impairing increased defence requirements. He emphasised the need for peace on the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent to fight the “battle of the masses against poverty and disease,” and called for a “just and durable solution of the Kashmir issue which is the basic cause of tension between India and Pakistan.”

In spite of the adverse effects of the Indo-Pakistan

war, the slowing down of foreign assistance and the fall in food production, Pakistan’s gross national product rose 4.8 per cent during the current financial year, 0.5 per cent more than in the preceding year, Shoaib said. He said wheat imports of more than two million tons would be required because of severe droughts. He said he was hopeful the entire amount would come from the United States.

ITALIAN POLLS.— Premier Aldo Moro’s Centre-Left coalition is engaging the Communists in a crucial test of strength in elections for new councils in three provinces and 168 municipalities, Including Rome.—Rome, June 13.