Pakistan, June 13 -- The Ministry of Finance has announced a special relief allowance for the armed forces in the next fiscal year. Officers will receive 50% of their basic salary as allowance, while junior commissioned officers and soldiers will get 20%. The finance secretary revealed this during a parliamentary committee briefing, but the ministry did not disclose the full financial cost despite concerns raised by opposition members.

At the same time, the public sector development budget has been reduced from Rs1.1 trillion to Rs967 billion, with concerns that even this amount may not be fully spent before June 30. Lawmakers warned that this cut would affect growth targets, especially the GDP estimate of 2.7%, and could disrupt key dev...