Pak govt. sanctions more funds to modernize armed forces

Islamabad, June 15 (ANI): Apart from hiking its defense spending by a whopping 15.3 percent, the Pakistan government has allocated 102.4 billion rupees for the Armed Forces Development Plan (AFDP) for fiscal 2009-10, country's Finance Secretary Salman Siddique has announced.

The AFDP was initiated by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to modernize nation's armed forces.

The initial target of the program was 15 billion dollars by 2015, but it was later increased to 25 billion dollars, the Daily Times reports.

Pakistan government has been financing the strategic programme with an annual allocation of 1 billion dollars for the last four years.

During 2008-09, 1.2 billion dollars were allocated, 1.28 billion dollars are sanctioned for fiscal 2009-10 to meet the growing defence requirements of the armed forces.

The program is considered to be vital in preparing Pakistan's armed forces to respond to terror threats.

The recent rise in acts of terrorism and insurgency have required the government to upgrade the country's weapons, and obtain access to the latest technologies available in the world markets in order to adequately address the security challenges.

According to sources, allocations made in foreign exchange for the AFDP are mainly used for imports. (ANI)