The Pakistan Army is the world’s seventh largest military. With around 560,000 active duty personnel, 550,000 reserves, 185,000 National Guards and 6,500 civilian personnel of Pak Army’s ground force, around 35,300 active duty officers and sailors, around 5,000 reserve force; 12,000 marines, 4,000 Maritime Security Agency, 2800 civilian personnel, around 154 ships and 85 aircraft of the Pakistan Navy; 70,000 active personnel, 8,000 reserve, 128 civilian personnel and over 970 aircraft of Pakistan Air Force; the brave sons of our soil are serving day and night to seal our borders and save us from our enemies.
The tasks are not so easy for Pak Army as it has to tackle many internal and external threats.
Pak Army is successfully taking care and protecting our long geographical borders. Pakistan has been facing threats from neighboring countries of India and Afghanistan since inception. India is not only engaged in supporting and facilitating the terrorism in the country but they are continuously carrying out their devious activities on borders. Cross border and unprovoked firing incidents are routine on our borders which are carried out by the Indian army repeatedly. The Pakistan army never initiates such firings but have to answer when such incidents are imposed on our border from our enemies without any reason. Pakistan’s Border with Afghanistan is also not safe and Afghanistan have also been hosting and facilitating the terrorist groups .The role of Pak Army is quite appreciable in securing our borders. India is also engaged in False Propaganda against Pakistan and Pak Army. Spying activities also on peak from their side. They don’t miss any chance to destabilize Pakistan. India is continuously aiming to show their superiority to neighboring countries by expanding its military numbers and capacity. Their huge military expenses of 76.6 billion dollars clearly shows their dirty intentions. On the other hand Pakistan’s total National Budget is 57 billion Dollars which is half than the Military expenses of India. It clearly shows how India is spending huge money to keep its hold in the region. On the other hand Pakistan is spending the minimum appropriate money on the Army just to cope with the challenges, threats and operational needs. Notable decreases in the military budget have been seen in the last few years which is now at the minimum level of 2.2 percent of GDP. The Pakistan army is the seventh largest Army of the world whereas it’s on 29th in the list of countries with the least military expenses. Pakistan is proud to get and prepare quality and professional soldiers on very less budget as compared to other militaries of the world. The US spends 392,000 dollars, Iran Spends 23,000 dollars, India Spends 42,000 dollars and Saudi Arabia spends 371,000 dollars whereas Pakistan spends 12,500 dollars on a soldier. Apart from these minimum expenses Pakistan Army ensures the same quality and professionalism which is even better in terms of enthusiasm, loyalty and motivation.
Internally, terrorism has been a big issue with the country and taken thousands of precious lives over the decades. Between 2002 and 2022, the country suffered over 28,000 civilian and security forces casualties in more than 15,000 incidents. The Pakistan Army conducted successful operations, Zarb e Azab and Radd ul Fasaad, to cope with terrorist networks across the country.
In the war against terror, the nation sacrificed over 86000 lives and lost over $152 billion. but the results were remarkable. During over 1200 operations, over 18,000 terrorists were eliminated, bulk of weapons and equipment were recovered, many training centres, madrassas, marakiz involved in terrorism dismantled, 449 tons of explosive recovered and 46,500 sq km area cleared. The Pakistan Army broke the international terrorist networks during this War on Terror and supported the international community by killing or arresting and repatriating over 1100 Al-Qaeda Terrorists. Intelligence was shared with over 70 countries. Fencing was done on borders and a proper monitoring was carried out to check the flow of terrorists. Pakistan, Army’s efforts helped a lot in taking the country out of FATF grey list
Readers, our Army has done and is doing remarkable job for the country and the institution has proved themselves best on all fronts. The need is to make a united approach from all segments on national Issues.