Financial assistance: Coalition support fund gets one-year lease
Congress ties assistance with new conditions
American Congress has included in its final budget recommendations a one-year plan to extend the financial support given to Pakistan to fight militancy in the region — but with certain new demands, BBC Urdu has reported.
In its budget of $521 billion, the US government has extended the validity of financial assistance by one year, but has also imposed some new terms and demands.
It has been reported that the assistance extended to Pakistan under coalition support fund will not exceed $1 billion.
Moreover, the defence secretary has also been stripped off his authority to sanction up to $300 million with the approval of Congress. Now the approval by Congress will be deemed necessary before any such withdrawal.
In order to sanction CSF to Pakistan, the US defence secretary will now have to take the House into confidence over the issue that military operation in North Waziristan has successfully targeted the safe havens of Haqqani Network.
They will also have to verify that Pakistan is taking steps to permanently dislodge the Haqqani Network.
Apart from this, the efforts made to provide security to US convoys travelling through Pakistan and to stop attacks on Afghan forces also came under discussion.
Washington pays for the expenses of fight against terrorism in four tranches. The latest payment in this regard was made in October this year, when the US paid $370 million to Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2014.