The Pakistan government presented a budget of Rs 18,771 billion for 2026-27 amid strong opposition from the opposition. When Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb was presenting the budget in Parliament, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of PPP, an ally in the Shahbaz government, was not present there. The largest part of the budget will go to repay the loan. Out of the total budget, Rs 8.054 lakh crore has been earmarked to repay the loan interest.

How much less is Pakistan’s defense budget compared to India?

Rs 3 lakh crore has been allocated for defence. Pakistan’s defense budget for the financial year 2024-2025 was fixed at Rs 2.122 lakh crore, which was approximately US $ 7.6 billion at that time. India’s central defense budget for the financial year 2025-2026 was Rs 6,81,210 crore (about $78.57 billion). This is about 13 percent of the country’s total government expenditure and about 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

In the budget presented by the Government of Pakistan, more decisions were taken regarding defense and fighter jets instead of plans to remove poverty of the common people. After Operation Sindoor, Pakistan is busy strengthening its defense because during this time the Indian Army had entered inside PAK and caused a lot of destruction.

Mention of defense agreement with Saudi Arabia

According to the report of Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Muhammad Aurangzeb said that the economy is expected to grow by four percent in the financial year 2026-27 and the average inflation is expected to be 8.2 percent. He said that many countries are in touch with Pakistan to include the fighter planes that protect our skies in their fleet. The Finance Minister said that the country’s defense sector has become a source of foreign exchange income. Praising Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, he said that the defense agreement signed with Saudi Arabia last year has given a new foundation to the relations between the two countries.

Did not burden the public: PAK government

Referring to the rising prices at the international level, he said that the government did not put the entire burden on the public, but provided relief to the people by giving a subsidy of Rs 128 billion. This is the third budget of Shehbaz Sharif government. Giving the account of previous years, he said, ‘GDP growth rate in the current financial year was 3.7 percent. Large scale manufacturing grew by 6.1% and service sector grew by 4.1%, which is the highest in 4 years. Pakistan’s economy has increased to 452 billion dollars. He said that apart from this, the government has also started loan schemes to promote small farmers and small businesses.

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