Rs18.2 bn spent on Pak-Afghan border fencing

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has spent Rs18.2 billion on fencing of Pakistan-Afghan border to stop cross border movement of terrorists during the outgoing fiscal year, budget document revealed.

The government had also spent an additional amount of Rs10 billion on raising a special security division (SSD) for the protection of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during the on-going financial year, the document revealed.

Pakistan had launched a massive effort to fence over 2,000 km Pak-Afghan border and the first phase of the project is likely to be completed by the end of 2018, which will see the fencing of 432km at the most critical points along the border. The fencing is aimed at stopping infiltration of Afghan militants into Pakistan who were found involved in major terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

According to the Ministry of Interior, the SSD consisting of nine composite infantry battalions and six civil armed forces wings has been raised a for the security of Chinese nationals working on CPEC project.

This SSD consists of over 13,731 security personnel to safeguard around 9,000 Chinese workers engaged in over 330 small and mega projects in the country. The supplementary grant of Rs10 billion to the SSD is mentioned in budget documents for the year 2017-18.

The supplementary grants pertaining to defense department also included an additional allocation of Rs2.62 billion for capacity building of Pakistan Army, an amount of Rs1 billion for Pakistan Navy an amount of Rs1 billion for the welfare of troops deployed along the Line of Control (LoC). The government spent an amount of Rs382 million for the construction of community bunkers along the LoC.