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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (19913)	2/25/2002 2:25:52 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

Thanks, Carl: 35% of government expenditures sounds a lot more reasonable doesn't it? It's what I should have said and agrees with what I've read. There is, however, an aspect to Pakistan's military dominance of the countrys economic life which is not mentioned in non Pakistan newspapers and that is the army, particularly, but also the other forces 'own' their own businesses, some of them quite important and which are badly run. The ostensible reason for this is to provide pension income and employment for ex service people. (The ex miltary who control these companies aren't likely to give positions to colleagues who are in disagreement with their views.) Excluded expenses as mentioned in your post plus the actual economic intrusion of armed services commercial activity certainly push up Pakistan's military spending to a remarkably high proportion not only of government expenditure but total national expenditure. It's a mess and explains why funds aren't available for public education which instead is left to Islamists who are supported by foreigners - mostly Saudi.