'Army wants to control even space agency,' say Pakistani netizens amid India's Chandrayaan-3 success

India's Chandrayaan-3 success on Wednesday has made Pakistani citizens question the efforts of their country's space agency. Many said that Pakistan's Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission lacks the vision for space efforts because it's mostly military men who have been heading it and its annual budget is a pittance when compared to the defence budget. 

One netizen said that Pakistan had a headstart in space exploration in the 60s when US helped it launch Rehbar-1, a two-staged solid fuel rocket.

Nobel Prize laureate Abdus Salam, who created research hubs and training agreements with NASA, left the country in the 70s as Ahmadi were declared non-Muslims by the Pakistani Parliament.

Since 2000s, SUPARCO has been led only by military men, namely Maj Gen Raza, Maj Gen Ahmed, Maj Gen Qaiser, Maj Gen Nadeem.

Meanwhile, since 2000s ISRO has been led by scientists like G Madhavan, K Sivan, A S K Kumar, K Radhakrishnan, S Somanath. 

"ISRO's budget: 1.6 billion dollars and SUPARCO'S budget: 7.4 billion rupees. Kyu ke humara sara budget tau defence mai chala jata hai." said an X user. 

"Merit makes the difference. Jobs are given based on family and mafia ties in Pakistan. This is why we can't have good things," quipped another X user. 

Meanwhile, the Pakistan rupee PKR=PK ended at a record closing low of 300.2 on Thursday, breaching a psychological barrier of 300 to the U.S. dollar, central bank data showed, amid a caretaker government setup in the country and reduced outflow restrictions.

The rupee, which touched a record low for a third consecutive day, has depreciated 2.9% since Aug. 15, after the caretaker government took over.

Some netizens said Pakistan can't think about space exploration at a time when the cost of living had almost doubled because of massive hikes in prices of food items, utilities and transport.

Pakistan’s annual inflation rate had reached an all-time high of 37.97% in May.

An economy in tatters, high inflation and unemployment rates are forcing a record number of Pakistanis to leave the country. 

Meanwhile, as India rejoiced the successful placement of the ISRO lander — Vikram — on the moon's uncharted South Pole, the agency's chairman S Somanath on Thursday confirmed that its maiden solar mission 'Aditya' is in the works and will be ready for launch in September. In a brief address to the nation after the lander touched down on the moon's dark side on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alluded to future missions to the Sun and Venus.