For the first time Since 1965, the country went to war with India, Pakistani Finance Minister Naveed Qamar revealed the details of his country defence budget to the Parliament after 43 years.
The military has since kept spending concerns out of the realm of civilians for reasons of national security.
People’s party government stepped a dynamic move to announce the details of defence budget in the parliament. Upto then the total figure is only announced by hiding the details of eloborate allocation.
Presenting the national budget of 2,010 billion rupees (over 30 billion dollars) in parliament, Naveed Qamar said it targets a growth rate of 5.5 percent.
Mr Qamar gave details of financial allocations to members in what was hailed as a "historic moment".
According to the two-page document issued in Islamabad, Pakistan’s army gets the largest share.
The army accounts for 188bn rupees ($2.80bn) out of a total defence expenditure of 296bn rupees ($4.39bn), an increase of 21 billion rupees that is neutralised due to depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar..
The country’s air force gets 71bn rupees ($1.07bn), while the navy gets a comparatively measly 29bn rupees ($432m).
Most of the army’s budget is going to be spent on its staff.
The case is similar as far as the air force and navy are concerned.
Operational costs for the two services are listed as 16 billion ($238m) and 4 billion rupees ($59.56m).
The acting finance minister also said 34 billion rupees had been allocated in the budget for a newly-launched scheme named after slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto to provide a monthly stipend of 1,000 rupees to the poorest families.
The government has allocated another 550 billion rupees for public sector development programmes, 20 percent more than the previous year.