The Hindu : International / India & World : Downsizing army: Pakistan wants India to follow suit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

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International - India & World

Downsizing army: Pakistan wants India to follow suit

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 29. A day after its decision to downsize the army by 50,000 troops, Pakistan wants India to follow suit to "improve the regional security situation."

"The decision to cut the tail of the [Pakistan Army] by 50,000 troops was Pakistan's unilateral decision but the idea of reduction in troops could be discussed with New Delhi if India agrees to a mutual agreement in this regard," the Pakistani military spokesman, Shaukat Sultan, said.

The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had hinted on these lines when he originally made public the proposal in the course of a satellite address to a conclave organised by an Indian magazine on March 13.

For some years now, Pakistan has been talking of a strategic restraint regime involving the conventional and nuclear weapons. But India has not responded to the idea on the plea that while Pakistan's defence preparedness is India centred, Indian defence readiness is not Pakistan-centred.

Pakistan is expected to once again press the idea of a restraint regime when experts from India and Pakistan meet in the last week of May to discuss confidence building measures (CBMs) related to the conventional and nuclear weapons.

Maj. Gen. Sultan, Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said a joint formula could be agreed upon to improve the regional situation. He maintained that Pakistan did not want to join any arms race or increase the strength of its army but would maintain a minimum deterrence.

It is still not clear how exactly Pakistan intends to go about downsizing its troops by 50,000. The ISPR has said that the plan is more of a re-structuring rather than reduction. The main objective of the exercise is to make the army "lean and effective." Expected savings on account of the downsizing is considered secondary.

For a country of 140 million people, Pakistan's army of 5.5 lakhs is considered huge. The defence spending of Pakistan estimated at 4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product is the highest in South Asia.

Pakistan initiated a process to scale back its defence spending from 6.1 per cent of GDP in 1992, after facing several balance of payments and fiscal constraints that strangulated the growth rate and fuelled poverty and unemployment.

There has been no real increase in defence allocations since the nuclear tests in 1998 and the defence budget as a percentage of GDP has been brought down to 3.9 in 2002-03.

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