This is apropos of the recent approval of Rs 505 billion for the defence division. The fact of the matter may be that our forces may need these funds given the drain terrorism is on the military. But we have no way of finding out if they do because there is no concept of transparency or accountability in the current setup of our establishment.
We live in a country where a government has to take debts to pay debt. There is no health or education for the majority of the masses. Yet we have enough money to give the forces for toys that six men can destroy within hours. They can talk about building defence capability all they want, but these assurances will amount to nothing until the public is sure that these funds are being audited and not being siphoned off into the behemoth of milbus. The forces need to realise that accountability and transparency is for their own good. They must find a way to balance operational secrecy with that of accountability to the people of Pakistan.
ALI RAZA
Lahore
