This column examines Pakistan’s recent surge in defence export agreements and the growing narrative that arms sales could provide an economic lifeline to a country long grappling with debt dependence, inflation, and IMF bailouts. While Islamabad has secured significant interest in platforms such as the JF-17 fighter jet from countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, the article argues that these deals offer limited fiscal relief.

It analyses the structure of modern arms contracts, the political conditions driving demand, and the slow, indirect nature of defence revenue, concluding that weapons exports cannot substitute for structural economic reform. The piece situates Pakistan’s defence diplomacy within broader questions of institutional weakness, fiscal sustainability, and the limits of militarised growth in addressing long-term economic fragility.