December
8, 2007 US Keeps Aid
Flowing to Pakistan
Despite Emergency By Arun Kumar
Washington
The US has justified keeping aid flowing to key ally Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf's government, which has since 2001
received close to $10 billion, bulk of it in military assistance,
despite imposition of emergency rule.
After initially concluding that Nov 3 imposition of emergency did
not "trigger any automatic aid cut-offs," US State Department has
after a review of US assistance determined "that maintaining funding
levels for Economic Support Funds and Foreign Military Financing is
crucial."
"Doing otherwise would not further our interests with Pakistan at a
time when Pakistan plays a critical role in the War on Terrorism and
is about to have elections that need to be free, fair, and
credible," a senior official told a US Senate panel Thursday.
However, to deflect Congressional criticism of the administration's
Pakistan policy, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central
Asia Richard Boucher told a Sub Committee of the US Senate Foreign
Relations Committee "As you in the Congress do, we would want to be
quite clear on what our money supports."
"Thus, we've made the decision that the $200 million in Fiscal Year
2008 Economic Support Funds used for budget support will be
projectised to ensure money is targeted at the most urgent
priorities" for programmes that directly benefit the Pakistani
people, he said.
"Foreign Military Financing to the Government of Pakistan's
counter-terrorism programme is another area we could not want to
cut, as cuts would be counterproductive to military-to-military
programmes and could affect Pakistan's willingness to continue to
support coalition access to Afghanistan," Boucher said.
To help Pakistanis build an economically healthy, stable and
democratic Pakistan, US has provided another $2.4 billion in
economic assistance since 2002. US provides $300 million per year in
Economic Support Funds and $300 million in Foreign Military
Financing for Pakistan as part of a five-year, $6 billion
Presidential commitment made by President George Bush in 2004, he
said.
In addition the US has provided Pakistan $1.9 billion in security
assistance in support of fighting terrorism, the "pre-eminent goal
of US policy in Pakistan". This has included $1.2 billion in Foreign
Military Financing, $244 million in Department of State
counter-narcotics funding and $87 million in Department of Defence
counter-narcotics funding and $37.2 million in counter-terrorism
funding.
This money has gone to purchase tactical radios, TOW missiles, Bell
412 and COBRA helicopters, and P-C3C Orion aircraft for maritime
surveillance. In addition, the US has provided $5.3 billion in
Coalition Support Funds to "reimburse Pakistan for expenses incurred
in the War on Terror."
Washington has also recently begun to implement a five-year, $750
million development strategy for Pakistan's frontier region that
supports the Government of Pakistan's nine-year, $2 billion
programme for the Tribal Areas' sustainable development, Boucher
said.
A growing number of US lawmakers, however, have voiced concerns
particularly since the imposition of emergency that Washington
possesses no sure-fire means of finding out how Islamabad spends the
money.
"Are we getting the most bang for our buck?" as an angry Senator
Robert Menendez, chairman of the sub committee on international
development and foreign assistance demanded at the hearing.
"In spite of (spending) $10 billion, Al Qaida and the Taliban have a
safe haven in the FATA (Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal
Area), Osama bin Laden is still on the loose in the region and
anti-Americanism remains high.
"...and Pakistan's President has repeatedly exercised the powers of
a dictator. Do we dare call our policies in that respect a success?
What happens if Pervez Musharraf is suddenly no longer the leader of
Pakistan?" he asked.
Boucher insisted that the coalition support funds being disbursed to
Pakistan were only "reimbursements" in the ongoing war on terror and
none of these funds are for any other purposes including for any use
on the domestic front.
"We don't see those as assistance. We don't lump them in with the
other categories of assistance. It's about $5.3 billion since 9/11,"
he said.The official said it's a programme that was authorised by
the Congress to reimburse allies and friends in the war on terror
for their expenses.
"That money goes to reimburse the Pakistanis for the expenses that
they incur in terms of food, ammunition, operating expenses, fuel -
all those things that they incur in terms of fighting the war on
terror," Boucher said.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
