Analysing the economic impact of military expenditure in Pakistan

Pakistan’s expenditure on defence this year rose to PKR 781 billion, or 18% of the national budget. Saad Khalid considers the nature of this military spending, and finds that it does have some development benefits, for example due to contributions to social welfare provided to military families. He argues that if political governments were to utilise the resources available to them more efficiently, army welfare would become redundant and resources could be distributed more equitably.