On one hand, Pakistan is facing serious economic crisis, inflation and starvation, on the other hand, its government has completely put its economy on hold and has decided to spend a lot of money on the army. Pakistan has made a big increase in its defense budget for the financial year 2026-27 by directly announcing it to Rs 1.33 lakh crore, which is more than twenty percent i.e. 20.84 percent of the total Union Budget of the country of Rs 6.38 lakh crore. This shocking policy of wasting money on military equipment amidst its faltering and bankrupt economy has not only shocked the international community, but America has also taken a strong stand expressing its deep displeasure and concern over this huge military allocation. America's Fiscal Transparency Report exposed: In the Fiscal Transparency Report 2025 released by the US State Department, very tough questions have been raised on the fairness, transparency and accountability of Pakistan's defense expenses. This report states in very clear words that Pakistan's defense budget is neither adequately and openly reviewed in the Parliament nor is there any effective civilian monitoring system available on it. America has given a strict warning to the Pakistan government and urged it to timely make public accurate and transparent information about its increasing government debt, liabilities of public enterprises and all expenses related to the defense sector. According to the report, Pakistan's defense budget has registered an unexpected and shocking increase of forty-one percent in the last three years alone, which is dangerous for the peace of the region. Indiscriminate purchase of arms from China and 'Muslim NATO' angle According to the data of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a huge increase of sixty-six percent has been recorded in Pakistan's arms imports between the year 2021 and 2025. The biggest and worrying thing is that out of the total weapons imported by Pakistan, only eighty percent of the weapons are being supplied by the communist country China, due to which Pakistan has today become the fifth largest arms importing country in the world. Diplomatic experts believe that this warning from America is also very important politically, because recently a new trilateral strategic agreement has been signed in Mecca between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which the world is seeing as 'Muslim NATO'. The American report coming out just a few days after this agreement shows that western countries are keeping a close eye on Pakistan's suspicious military activities. People drowning in poverty and American aid in danger. The most dire and direct impact of this indiscriminate and unnecessary increase in the defense budget is falling on the common poor people of Pakistan. The poverty rate in the country has increased from twenty-one percent in the year 2018-19 to twenty-eight percent now, due to which today more than seven crore Pakistani citizens are forced to live under the shadow of extreme poverty and starvation. In the global assessment conducted by the US State Department, countries like India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have successfully passed all the standards of financial transparency, whereas more than sixty-five countries of the world including Pakistan have not been able to meet even the minimum standards. Although the US does not directly impose any economic sanctions in such cases, if there is strong evidence of misuse of US aid funds, Washington can anytime impose major restrictions on its direct government economic aid.
