(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
Pakistan on Thursday successfully test-fired the latest iteration of the Shaheen Ballistic Missile. The Shaheen-II surface-to-surface missile is going to significantly increase both the range of the Shaheen-I but also the fiscal deficit of the federal budget.
“With the latest technology, we have ensured that the Shaheen-II has an effective range of 1500 kilometres,” said Dr Hassan Khattak chief engineer of the project. “Meanwhile, as a result of this and other such projects, we are looking at the fiscal deficit widening from last years, 2.7 pc of GDP to around 4 pc of GDP. Exciting stuff.”
Experts at both the Air Weapons Research Complex and the Planning Commission have also confirmed these claims.
“Yes, an effective range of 1500 kilometres,” said Dr Saira Cheema, physicist at the AWRC. “We’re talking about from Karachi to Lucknow here.”
“A significant increase in the fiscal deficit, from fiscal year’s of an already massive Rs 1.03 trillion,” concurred Dr Mugheez Burki, Chief Economist at the Planning Commission. “We’re talking about from where we are to not being able to afford new schools here.”