RAWALPINDI – Pakistan’s military spokesman has said the country’s armed forces have the capability to respond despite its budgeting choice.
In a tweet Wednesday, Director General Inter Services Public Relations Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor responded to the Indian media’s spinning on our internal defense budgeting choice.
https://twitter.com/OfficialDGISPR/status/1136221749752795136
He reminded the Indian media that we were the same forces with same budget on 27th of Februray this year.
On Feb 27th, Pakistan Air Force had shot down two Indian fighter jets over the disputed border region of Kashmir, in a significant escalation of the crisis between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Pakistan also captured an Indian pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, and to India’s fury, published a video of him. He was later handed over to Indian authorities.
The ISPR chief said it is not budgeting but the resolve of force and the backing of the nation for its forces which counts.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa said “Irrespective of the voluntary cut in defence budget coming financial year (FY), there shall be no impact on our response potential to all types of threat and quality of life of the soldiers.”
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/cuts-in-defence-budget-wont-impact-pakistans-threat-response-army-chief/
He also assured troops that “no pay raise decision is also only for the officers and not for the soldiers”.
“We shall manage the shortfall during the FY by tightening our belt in areas where it doesn’t effect the two aforesaid aspects,” the army chief was quoted by ISPR as saying.
