Though the US denied this, adding $8.8 billion in CSF payments have been approved for Pakistan.
“We have still not received nearly $1.2 billion in the CSF, which had an effect both on our external receipts as well as on the budget,” Shaikh told a house ringing with protests and slogans from the Opposition on Friday. Shaikh was forced to cut short his speech after a scuffle broke out in the Parliament during his speech. The English translation of the minister’s budget speech available on the Finance Ministry’s website, contained the statement.
Commander Bill Speaks, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense, told The Express Tribune that while the department does not discuss claims, he said that the DoD “has approved more than $8.8
billion in CSF reimbursements to Pakistan since 2002.” He added that CSF was one of the issues that the US was discussing with Pakistan as part of their “broad engagement” with the government of Pakistan.
The DoD spokesperson also said that the last CSF reimbursement to Pakistan was on December 24, 2010 for the amount of $633 million.
However, when President Zardari reportedly raised the issue of Coalition Support Fund payments with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Chicago in May, he said that Pakistan had not received funds since July 2010.
Shamila N Chaudhary, the former Pakistan Director at the White House National Security Council and now an analyst at the Eurasia Group said, "The government's accounting of past due coalition support funds in next year's budgeting conveys an unrealistic confidence that the relationship with the US will improve.”
“This reimbursement program has always been a source of tension for both the US and Pakistan, and there is no reason to be sure of its future now, at the height of bilateral tensions and declining support for Pakistan in the US Congress."
In May, the US Senate voted to make aid to Pakistan conditional based on its cooperation with the US. It also pared down CSF payments to $50 million.
COMMENTS (10)
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I will be very nice today and say just this: expecting a roster to lay eggs is like believing pigs can fly..Insha Allah soon all this BS will come to an end.and Pakistan will be free of the collar and leash the US put around this so called government..
@John B: Agreed. You have made the point as clear as daylight.
Pakistan's budget is increasingly not based on infrastructure earnings (exports and imports) but on the earnings of remittances, war effort and AID.
Salams
It is so sad the Americans always use their funds to political ends...... Even sadder countries like our get used for that...... Time is changing!
US came to know of Abbottabad after Dec24, 2010. PAK should be happy that US is not asking for the money back.
Shame on Government for earning "Jagga Tax" in the name of martyred.
Simply they will put that all in their pockets.
It is clear Pakistan's Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh does not use professional accountants. If he did, he could easily show documented cost of Pakistan loosing closing to $100 billion in partnering and supporting US war effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan. You cannot even begin to name and add the real losses. I grieve for 180 million honest simple people of Pakistan for trying very hard to be friends of US without any appreciation.
Why are we working on credit with the US ?? No money no honey !!
huh? Yes they approved $8.8 billion since 2002 but Pakistan has not received CSF since the end of 2010. So no, DoD did not refute Pakistans claim. Either the DoD or ET are trying to confuse the issue.