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Pakistan has raised the allocation for defence expenditure by a substantial 28.9 percent for the coming financial year. The increase in the defence budget means that Islamabad would now spend 442.173 billion rupees, which is 99.26 billion rupees more than the defence budget for the last fiscal. Tabling the budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that security was Pakistan's top priority. "I think security is our topmost issue.We are facing a situation in which our armed forces, paramilitary forces and security forces are laying down their lives. They are bearing pain for the country and the people, I salute them. They should know from this house that we all stand by them," The BBC quoted Shaikh, as saying during his budget speech. According to details, the defence administration has been allocated 1.427 billion rupees against 1.289 billion rupees in 2009-10, while the share of defence forces will be 440.746 billion rupees, as compared to 376.846 billion rupee last year. Out of the 440.746 billion rupees, 176 billion rupees has been allocated for salaries and other benefits to defence personnel. Operational expenditures have been estimated at 111.240 billion rupees, as compared to 97.398 billion rupees in 2009-10.

Pak Govt increases defence budget by 28.9 percent for 2010-11