S P O T L I G H T

Pakistan slashes defence spending
Islamabad, June 18
Ahead of the forthcoming Indo-Pakistan summit and under pressure from the IMF and the World Bank, Pakistan’s military regime today created history by slashing the county’s defence spending by two billion rupees and increasing the development spending by 27.4 per cent. The cut in real terms could be around 3.5 billion rupees if the prevailing rates of inflation as well as steep depreciation of Pakistan rupees against the US dollar is added. This is the first time that Pakistan has slashed its defence budget. PTI