NA question hour: Pakistan received $3.2b under Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act

136m mobile sets imported for Rs143b in 5 years.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has received $3.2 billion under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act from the US since October 2009.

Under the KLB, the US government was provided $2.1 billion in bilateral civilian assistance while the remaining US$1.06 billion was given as part of the Emergency Flood Response, the National Assembly was told on Wednesday.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, while quoting figures provided by the Economic Affairs Division, told the house that the US government disbursed a total of $950 million in fiscal year 2012 under KLB.

“In 2012, the US released $670 million till 30 June 2012; however, another $280 million were later released in August to support the energy sector,” said Khar. She was replying to a question by MNA Nisar Tanveer.

The data shared with the ministry of foreign affairs by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the minister said, showed that most of the KLB assistance went to Stabilisation, $621.9 million, through USAID.

It was followed by $330.8 million for education and another $313.1 million for health and social/humanitarian assistance.

The USAID data shared with the assembly by the minister showed that most of the KLB assistance was made in emergency flood response which remained over 36% of the total volume.

Almost 5% was directed to energy and economic growth respectively. The USAID put the total amount of assistance provided to Pakistan under KLB at US$2.9 billion.

136 million cell phones

Over the last five years, Pakistan spent over Rs143 billion importing over 136 million cell phone sets. In his written answer during question hour, Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim told the house that 61.5 million phones were imported in 2011-12 spending Rs12.3 billion.

In 2008-09, the country spent Rs46.5 billion on mobile phone sets and imported 14 million phones that year.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2013.