PPP Senator Raza Rabbani on Tuesday suggested the formation of a parliamentary committee tasked with looking into the defence budget as he pointed out that the budgetary allocations for the military had never been considered for a discussion in the parliament.
In the budget presented by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on June 10, defence services were allocated Rs1,523 billion.
In terms of expenditure, the defence budget is 16pc of the government’s planned total outlay exactly the same as it was a year before.
Speaking during the Senate session on Tuesday, Rabbani said he was aware of the sensitivity of the matter, adding that “the existing Parliamentary Committee on Defence must first see the defence expenditure that includes oil and related spending threadbare and once the [committee’s] confidence level increases.
