I wanted to revisit the topic of lowering the Pakistani military budget and spending savings on social welfare, most importantly early childhood malnutrition.
The Indian foreign policy think tank ORF has a piece on military-civilian relations in Pakistan and raised the questions:
For example, will the Army be okay with a big cut in its budget to help the government reduce the yawning fiscal deficit? Will the Army accept the civilian government indulging in fiscal profligacy to win the next election even as it slashes the military budget?
I don't know if the piece is total junk but in any case I thought the questions it framed on budget battles sounded valid.
Regarding malnutrition, Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 was released in October and India ranks very low. The Indian government is outraged at the low ranking. The official statement of the Indian government is to criticize the methodology of the ranking to portray it as invalid. Yesterday, an op-ed column in the Times of India criticizes GHI. It is not as delusional as the Modi government but is also flawed. The writer finds the GHI is too focused on the health of young children when it purports to measure hunger among the general population.
That is a terrible argument in my view because early childhood is the crucial period. Malnourished young kids will permanently lose IQ points. It's bad if older kids and adults suffer from hunger. However, early childhood malnutrition is catastrophic for society. Stunted IQ has lasting consequences crippling the productive or soldiering ability of affected kids for the rest of their life.
I hope Pakistan can gain a significant economic and military advantage over India by doing more to tackle early childhood nutrition. Pakistan's GHI is higher than India but there is a very long way to go. I wonder if the link between childhood malnutrition and quality of the military age population in 15-18 years is better explained, would it help develop a compromise between civilian and military authorities struggling over budget allocation? Would the military be more willing to part with its share of the national budget if it went into an initiative that would raise IQ of future troops?