MEDIA
NEW DELHI: The stand-off between India and Pakistan following the attack on parliament in ’01 has cost the two nations an estimated $3bn, according to a strategic think-tank.
While the cost to India was estimated at $1.8bn, Pakistan had to cough up the remaining $1.2bn, a study by International Centre for Peace Initiatives (ICPI), quoted by Pakistani weekly The Friday Times, said.
New Delhi’s spending amounted to 0.38% of its GDP, while Pakistan’s shelled out a whopping 1.79%.
The closure of each other’s airspace cost Pakistan $3m per month and India’s losses ran as high as $4.3m till the resumption of air links in the summer of ’04, the weekly said quoting the study.
In ’02-03, India was spending Rs 1,400 crore each year on its Siachen operations, compared with Pakistan’s Rs 450 crore.
The study said Pakistan officially lost 270 soldiers in the Kargil conflict, though “the US State Department put the casualties at roughly 700”, the Pakistani journal said.
It said the findings of the study have been corroborated by reports of the Asian Development Bank and some other international organisations that the two countries were among 15 major military spenders of the world.
“This is ironic, especially for Pakistan, considering that over 50m Pakistanis live on or below the poverty line,” the article said.
“These statistics translated into real, on-the-ground situation means that large populations in the two countries have been badly impacted by misplaced priorities,” the Pakistani weekly said.
It said Pakistan’s official defence budget of $2.8bn, excluding the over $500m worth of pensions that are “now part of the government expenditure under a different head, is astronomical compared to the annual collective allocation of less than $300m for health and education”.
It quoted analysts as suggesting that Pakistan’s strategy now “must focus on forging a working relationship with India rather than basing policies on the presumption that India is an eternal enemy not amenable to the idea of a friendly Pakistan”.
The weekly also said Islamabad should also invent ways to push forward a mutually beneficial co-existence with India “rather than formulating futile reactionary responses on issues like the Indian desire for a UN Security Council seat”.
