Pakistan

$1.2b being released: senior US diplomat

The US Senate Committee on Appropriations has given the go-ahead for the release of $1.2 billion to Pakistan.

Anjum Rahman July 18, 2010

The US Senate Committee on Appropriations has given the go-ahead for the release of $1.2 billion to Pakistan under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, said a very senior US diplomatic source. The projects being funded under the bill focus on the water and power sectors.

The revelation comes ahead of the Pak-US 5th Strategic Dialogue being chaired by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The remaining three million dollars are being kept in reserve and will be released if necessary, said the source. Meanwhile, to ensure transparency and accountability in the administration of the monies, the Office of the Auditor General of the US, the audit section of the Department of State and the audit section of the US Department of Defence have established offices in Pakistan.

“The Pakistan government has finally also received money from the Coalition Support Fund for the year 2008 and the audit and accounting for the 2009 amount is currently under scrutiny,” he confided. Meanwhile, he said, the US is also releasing military funding under the Foreign Military Support Programme as well as the Pakistan Counterinsurgency and Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capacity Fund.

Calling the approach to Pakistan under the Bush administration “transactional”, the official insisted that the Obama administration had tailored its aid programme in accordance with the advice of “the people of Pakistan” and that the projects earmarked for funds were reflective of this. “No other country is getting this type of attention or support; work on the 5th Strategic Dialogue has finished three months ahead of schedule and substantial work is being done by the 13 working groups,” he said. These include agriculture, defence, energy, water, economics and finance, law enforcement and counter-terrorism among others.

Elaborating on the reasons for this, he said the US is of the view that both Pakistan and the US have a common enemy in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and need to join forces to counter terrorism. “Although the Secretary of State is visiting Afghanistan for the Afghan donors’ conference, her visit to Pakistan is equally important,” said the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2010.