Pakistan has completed the critical phase of fencing 643 kilometers of its border with Afghanistan to facilitate trade and check illegal cross border movement; however the escalation in cost has been significant - from Rs 10 billion to Rs 66.2 billion. Official sources told Business Recorder that the plan is to fence 2611 kilometers of Pakistan-Afghanistan border out of which the work on 643 kilometers- priority-I, the high infiltration-prone border areas - has been completed.
They said that the next two phases-priority-II, measuring 379 kilometers and priority-III 485 kilometers, will be completed in the next two years.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Pakistan Army plans to fence 1343 kilometers along the border out of which work on 461 kilometers has been completed.
In Balochistan, a total of 182 kilometers of the border has been fenced while the military plans to fence a total of 1268 kilometers.
A total of 843 border posts were planned to be constructed along the border of which 233-175 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 60 in Balochistan - have been completed while work on remaining 140 is underway.
Security sources claimed that the law and order situation has improved remarkably, and the number of terrorist attacks per month reduced from an average of eight in 2013 to one to two in 2017-18, adding that the fencing of the border has contributed considerably to an improved security situation.
The initial cost of fencing was estimated at Rs 10 billion which has been revised upward to Rs 66.2 billion due to the construction of watch towers/forts/posts, night vision cameras along the fence for monitoring and surveillance purposes as well as construction of border forts with inter-fort distance of 1.5-3 kms to cover frequented and unfrequented routes.
Last month, the federal cabinet approved Rs 20 billion supplementary grants required for fencing and lighting the fenced border, on the request of Ministry of Defence, of which Rs 6 billion has already been released.
The decision was taken days after the Finance Ministry in its fiscal operation data of first quarter of financial year 2018-19, revealed that total defence spending during the first three months (July-September 2018) rose to 0.6 per cent of GDP, compared to 0.5 per cent in the same period of last year.
In absolute terms, defence expenditure increased by 21 per cent to Rs 219.4 billion from Rs 181 billion during the first three months last year.
According to Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan is engaged in building border control infrastructure along Pak-Afghan border with a view to facilitate trade and transit, encourage and support legitimate travel and check illegal cross border movement of people and goods between the two countries.
"It is important to prevent movement of terrorists and other unwanted personnel," he said, adding that Pakistan expects Afghanistan to undertake similar measures on its side of the border to effectively check cross border infiltration by terrorists.
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