By Agha Iqrar Haroon
The Government of Pakistan, in its Budget 2026-27 proposals, has proposed allocating around $10 billion to defence compared to India’s $82 billion defence budget. Since Pakistan’s overall economic outlay is smaller than India’s, it stands at 16% of the total federal outlay compared to India’s 13.4% of the total Union Budget for 2025–26.
The increase in the defence budget is not substantial compared to the challenges faced by the country on its western as well as eastern borders. Why I am saying that the increase in the defence budget is far less than it should have been is because the broader regional context is important. India’s defence budget for 2026-27 exceeds $80 billion, making it nearly eight times larger than Pakistan’s estimated defence allocation of around $10 billion. More significantly, India’s capital modernisation budget ($20 to $23 billion) earmarked for aircraft, naval platforms, missiles, advanced technology, and procurement surpasses Pakistan’s entire defence budget.
To my understanding, Pakistan is seeking to maintain a minimum credible defence posture in an environment shaped by regional military competition, persistent terrorism, border volatility, and rapidly evolving technologies of war. A credible deterrent reduces the risk of miscalculation, discourages adventurism, and contributes to strategic stability.
Figures indicate defence spending is an effort to maintain minimum credible deterrence rather than what defence requirements actually needs to achieve military superiority over terrorism and hostile neighbors at both the borders. Even with the proposed increase, the gap between Pakistan and India continues to widen in absolute terms.
Pakistan’s foremost problem is that it has not successfully enhanced its economic base despite having a population of 240 million people and ample natural resources. Depending upon loans to run the state is putting Pakistan’s economy under more pressure, while regional and global challenges have increased many-fold in the last 20 years. The most important are the antagonistic behaviour of India on the eastern border and Indian-funded, Afghan Taliban-hosted terrorism on the western border. I have reasons to believe that due to limited economic opportunities, the Pakistan Army does not demand what it actually needs to mitigate threats at the borders and enhance its operational readiness as demanded by the circumstances. Therefore, the Army is not compromising on the procurement of arms, ammunition, military equipment, and related acquisitions. Allocation under this category is set to rise by 39.62pc to Rs925.83bn from Rs663.08bn in the current fiscal year, accounting for almost 31pc of the defence budget.
Spending on civil works, which includes maintenance of military infrastructure and construction of new facilities, is projected to increase by 7.92pc to Rs363.16bn from Rs336.49bn.
Pakistan’s military responsibilities extend far beyond conventional deterrence because provincial governments, which are primarily responsible for tackling the law-and-order situation, are lagging, particularly the government in KP–the province that is the biggest victim of terrorism. The ground reality provides reasons that defence spending must support counter-terrorism operations, intelligence gathering, border fencing, disaster response, evacuation missions, and assistance to civil authorities during emergencies along with the conventional duties of an Army because civil governance structures has miserably failed to face the challenges such as disaster response, evacuation missions. The security of major economic initiatives, including CPEC infrastructure, ports, energy corridors, mining projects and industrial zones have also been looked after my security agencies because provincial governments/civil administration are not ready to burden. Moreover, security challenges on both the eastern and western borders require more than what Pakistan has allocated for defence because Pakistan is now facing a full-fledged war-like situation on both borders. It needs to construct stronger defence-related infrastructure on the western side, where Pakistan did not spend much in the past while believing that Afghanistan was a friendly country, whereas it has proven itself more hostile than any enemy.
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif rightly says that the regional security environment has become increasingly imbalanced due to regional situations such as the US-Iran war and India’s aggressive designs against Pakistan.
It is understood that security challenges cannot be seen through a conventional military lens because Pakistan faces a mix of traditional threats, terrorism, cyber warfare, information warfare, and rapidly evolving technologies reshaping modern battlefields.
The proposed increase in Pakistan’s defence budget has reignited a familiar debate about national priorities. Critics often argue that scarce resources should be directed toward development, education, healthcare, and social welfare rather than military spending. Under normal circumstances, such concerns deserve serious consideration. However, the current regional and security environment demands a more realistic assessment of Pakistan’s defence requirements. It is the foremost duty of the governments (federal and provincial) to enhance the resources they are lacking, so any increase that is even less than the actual demand for security and defence appears larger than allocations to other sectors.
Every sane Pakistani knows that the country faces a complex and multidimensional security landscape. On its western frontier, terrorism has been injected by adversaries, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, through the Taliban-led government in Kabul. Cross-border attacks, intelligence-based operations, border management, and counter-terrorism efforts require sustained resources and operational readiness. Simultaneously, Pakistan cannot ignore developments on its eastern border. Although recent tensions with India did not escalate into full-scale conflict, they highlighted a changing battlefield where drones, precision-guided weapons, cyber operations, electronic warfare, and real-time surveillance are becoming increasingly decisive. Modern warfare is no longer defined solely by troop movements and conventional firepower. The lessons emerging from conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and South Asia demonstrate that technological superiority, cyber resilience, and integrated defence systems are becoming essential components of national security.
Against this backdrop, portraying Pakistan’s defence budget increase as an bellicose is misleading. While the increase may appear significant in percentage terms (approximately 17.5 to 20 percent), the actual rise in spending amounts to roughly $1.3 to $1.5 billion. Moreover, a substantial portion of this increase will be absorbed by inflation, exchange-rate fluctuations, rising fuel costs, maintenance expenses, salaries, logistics, and the higher cost of imported equipment and spare parts. A nominal increase does not automatically translate into a proportional enhancement of military capability.
The fundamental reality remains unchanged: Pakistan spends barely a fraction of what India allocates to defence. The proposed increase therefore represents an effort to narrow critical capability gaps and sustain operational effectiveness, not an attempt to alter the regional balance of power. In an increasingly uncertain security environment, maintaining preparedness is not a luxury—it is a necessity.
