Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$4.26 billion (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
3.9% (2005 est.)
Transnational Issues Pakistan
Disputes - international:
various talks and confidence-building measures cautiously have
begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the
October 2005 earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains
the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial
dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China
(Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir
and Northern Areas); UN Military Observer Group in India and
Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has maintained a small group of peacekeepers
since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic
Kashmir lands to China in 1964; in 2004, India and Pakistan
instituted a cease-fire in the Kashmir, and in 2005 restored bus
service across the highly militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has
taken its dispute on the impact of India's building the Baglihar Dam
on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for
arbitration and in general the two states still dispute Indus River
water sharing; to defuse tensions and prepare discussions on a
maritime boundary, in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion
of the disputed the Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of
Kutch; Pakistani maps continue to show the Junagadh claim in India's
Gujarat State; by 2005, Pakistan, with UN assistance, had
repatriated 2.3 million Afghan refugees and had undertaken a census
to count the remaining million or more, many of whom remain at their
own choosing; Pakistan has sent troops into remote tribal areas to
control the border with Afghanistan and stem organized terrorist or
other illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings with Afghan
and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary
encroachments
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 960,041 (Afghanistan)
IDPs: undetermined (government strikes on Islamic militants in South
Waziristan); 3 million (October 2005 earthquake) (2005)
Illicit drugs:
opium poppy cultivation declined 58% to 3,147 hectares in 2005;
federal and provincial authorities continue to conduct anti-poppy
campaigns that force eradication - fines and arrests will take place
if the ban on poppy cultivation is not observed; key transit point
for Afghan drugs, including heroin, opium, morphine, and hashish,
bound for Western markets, the Gulf States, and Africa; financial
crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption, and
smuggling remain problems
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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