AURANGABAD, July 1: The fifth Pay Commission will meet most of the demands put forward by the Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, regardless of the constrains on the nation's economy, Defence Ministry Mulayam Singh Yadav promised here on Tuesday. He also described as baseless all reports that the Commission was not in favour of the kind of package that the Defence personnel were expecting.

The Defence Minister arrived here this morning on a six-day visit to the city, which is hosting the national convention of the Samajwadi Party. Addressing Army units at the Aurangabad cantonment, Mulalyam Singh made repeated references to the Pay Commission report and assured the Forces that he would not disappoint them in any way.

Later addressing newspersons, Yadav said that almost all Ministries had now realised that they could ill-afford to cut down any demand of the forces.

``Without a strong defence system, no foreign policy can be sustained,'' he said.

The Defence Minister also said that he had assigned top priority to housing, employment and education of ex-servicemen. An average solider retires at a relatively young age of 36 to 48 years and is faced with hardships without these facilities. On relations with Pakistan, Yadav said he was confident about Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief's intentions about improving relations with India.Yadav also refuted reports that the youth of the country were no longer attracted to the Defence services. ``The fact is that we have not filled over 13,000 vacancies for officers, and some vacancies have remained since the 1950's,'' Yadav said.There were also plans to give direct recruitment to NCC cadets holding a certificate.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.