WASHINGTON:
The United States is committed to ‘a strong, mutually respectful relationship with Pakistan’ and will continue to provide civilian aid, the US State Department said on Saturday.
Relations between both countries reached a new low since the Nato airstrike on Pakistani check posts, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on their border posts, in November last year.
“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
“We consider bilateral US civilian assistance to be an important component of that relationship and believe it can help Pakistan become a more prosperous, stable, and democratic state, which serves national interests of both the US and Pakistan.”
The Unites States is a major provider of aid to Pakistan, and has so far provided a total of $2.2 billion in civilian assistance, including about $550 million in emergency humanitarian assistance, since October 2009.
About $855 million of that was provided in the 2011 fiscal year, not including emergency humanitarian aid, statement said.
The question of aid has been a sticking point for some in Washington amid growing tensions between both countries.
Islamabad rejected a Nato report that blamed the deadly attacks on ‘misunderstandings’ from both sides, and closed all Nato supply routes across its borders to Afghanistan. A parliamentary committee in Islamabad is currently reexamining ties with the US.
Since 2002, the US has given Pakistan approximately $18 billion in military, civilian and coalition support, Mark Stroh, a US State Department official in Islamabad, told CNN.
According to Nuland’s office, civilian aid is focused on five key areas: energy, economic growth, stabilising border regions, education and health.
“Notably, in 2011, the US supported the construction of 210 kilometers of road in Fata & Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, funded the world’s largest Fulbright exchange program, and sponsored initiatives promoting private sector growth and civil society development in Pakistan,” it added.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2012.
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""" THE CROP OF EXTREMISM """" grew in last 25 years after invasion by Soviet union . USA/EUROPE through Pakistan watered/nurtured this crop and mind set as JIHADIST PRODUCTION FIELDS......NOW
the same 25 years matured so called extremist need to be REPLACED by another CROP of SOPHISTICATED/EDUCATED/ CIVILISED people. So THE KEY IS INVESTMENT INTO EDUCATION,....so that a NEW PRODUCTION LINE OF CIVILISED PEOPLE could be achieved and this should and will continue to sort out the MENACE OF EXTREMISM. EDUCATION is the ONLY TOOL which gives a PERSON ability to CHOOSE WHAT IS RIGHT & WRONG for him and his family.
" EDUCATION is the KEY "