India, Aug. 26 -- The Pakistan Navy marked the launch of its third Hangor-class submarine at Wuhan's Wuchang Shipyard on August 15, 2025. For naval officials, the event was a milestone in modernisation, showcasing progress on the country's largest underwater warfare programme. For many Pakistanis, however, it was a bitter contrast: billions spent on foreign-built submarines at a time when households face soaring food inflation, rising electricity tariffs and shrinking purchasing power.

The Hangor deal, signed in 2015, is valued at an estimated USD 5-6 billion. Four of the eight submarines will be built in China and four assembled at Karachi Shipyard under a transfer-of-technology package. Yet as fiscal space tightens, the trade-off betwe...