US refuses to fund Pakistan-American Enterprise Fund

[bubble123]

shkur karo jan chut rahi ha in ki aid say ya aid nahi aids ha pakistan kay liya

 

[Nitin Goyal]

Do not need to blame US for the misuse of aids by pakistanis themselves... You need to blame your own leaders who didn't exceuted plans well. Why to blame US who was giving you "Free Lunch" ?

 

[Imran Khan]

another good news congs we are getting freedom day by day . why not USA just take its bloody consulates from Pakistan and close ours in USA and we got complete freedom in a day

 

[StandForInsaf]

What do you expect. Obama is President. He hates Pakistan. Even Bush was better for Pakistan than Obama.

I don't know what he has against Pakistan, maybe he had a bad personal experience in Karachi. He mentioned that he visited Karachi when he was younger.

I request all Pakistan-Americans to vote for anyone except Obama.

And what was this bad experience someone kicked his butt hard ?

 

[Kazhugu]

next will be the veto on WB/IMF assistance to pakistan....

 

[SBD-3]

next will be the veto on WB/IMF assistance to pakistan....

World bank IMF matters are not decided in security council dude, get some basic education will ya?

 

[Kazhugu]

World bank IMF matters are not decided in security council dude, get some basic education will ya?

exactly...they dont need security council to support them on this isssue...under an unwritten agreement Europe controls IMF while US controls WB.....if US thinks then it can act without the consent of nations that might support pak namely china,russia etc....

 

[Imran Khan]

next will be the veto on WB/IMF assistance to pakistan....

i hope that time zardari left office and we have a leader . and hope pakistan stop paying them profits too

 

[Kazhugu]

i hope that time zardari left office and we have a leader . and hope pakistan stop paying them profits too

are baba its not that simple as you ppl think nor can the next leader magically wave his wand and everything will be back to normal....zardari or no zardari external help is needed for all frailing economies and if the external help is also cut off...that is very very bad...do you think if zardari goes all those who are not paying taxes will immediately start paying taxes..?

 

[rohailmalhi]

We can do excellent job ,this is the time we can develop ourselves.

1- They are going to hit u economically- put all ur efforts on agriculture.That is ur lifeline.
2-They are going to hit u financially - Stop the aid(Best thing in favour of Pakistan) ,Stop IMF/WB to assist Pakistan.
U can have investors if u can make sure that they will get profit over their investment i think Middle eastern are ready to deal with u .Also look in to bartar trade(No money required) with neighboring countries.

Now at this time all this comes down to planing ur next move without confrontation with US of A. I dont know if our Gov is capable enough to do that.

May Allah help Pakistan.
Live Long Pakistan .

 

[SBD-3]

exactly...they dont need security council to support them on this isssue...under an unwritten agreement Europe controls IMF while US controls WB.....if US thinks then it can act without the consent of nations that might support pak namely china,russia etc....

Well Pakistan's case isnt that worst as you guys think (or your media feeds you). We are not in direct confrontation with US like Iran. The Nato supply route passed through Pakistani land and we have every right to decide whether to allow its usage or not. Its not as bizzar as you people dream about.

 

[Guest01]

Civilian aid dries up: US refuses to fund Pakistan-American Enterprise Fund


ISLAMABAD: After suspending military assistance, the United States has now refused to finance the $300 million Pakistan-American Enterprise Fund as tensions between Islamabad and Washington start taking their toll on civilian aid.

The revelation comes after President Obama signed an omnibus spending bill which linked disbursements of the $850 million Country Insurgency Fund with the requirement that any assistance to Pakistan be made conditional to the US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence certifying that Islamabad is cooperating in the war on terror.

The approval of the Pakistan-American Enterprise Fund has been dropped despite the fact Pakistan had been assured by the US Deputy Secretary of State that the fund would be approved. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee had earlier cleared the draft legislation and sent it to a conference committee of the United States Congress – a joint body comprising representatives from both houses of the US legislature – for final approval.

Sources in the finance ministry told The Express Tribune that the Obama administration did not put the fund up for a vote and took it out from the draft legislation at conference committee stage. The Pak-American Fund approval had earlier been clubbed with similar funds for three other countries. The US legislature approved such funds for other countries but left out the fund for Pakistan, they added.

The fund was to be financed under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act – enshrined into US law to give $7.5 billion over five years in civilian assistance to Pakistan. The implementation period of $300 million fund was five years, with a $60 million annual American investment in small and medium enterprises in Pakistan.

The fund was aimed at empowering Pakistan’s private sector by creating jobs and opportunities for increasing economic growth and stability in the country. The US had modelled the fund over its earlier successful post-Cold War funds established for the development of Eastern Europe.

Mark Stroh, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that “Congress did not legislate the Pakistan-American Enterprise Fund in the 2012 budget”. In fact the fund was not even tabled for the approval by Congress, he added.

Stroh said: “however, the [Obama] administration continues to pursue access to finance for small and medium businesses in Pakistan through its equity fund.” He said the US government was still looking for ways to give access to capital to small businesses in 2012 but nothing can be said with certainty at this stage.

Sources said that as Congress is currently in a deeply anti-Pakistan mood, the Obama administration was looking for alternative programmes and the Pakistan Equity Fund was one of the possibilities. They added establishing the equity fund would not require Congressional approval.
The denial of the enterprise fund comes as a blow to Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who had been assured by the US Deputy Secretary of State in September 2011 that the US government would not suspend civilian assistance, despite the strains in the military ties between the two countries.

The Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act was approved by Congress in 2010 and was meant to provide $1.5 billion in assistance to Pakistan every year. Yet so far only the money for 2010 has been authorised, of which only $600 million has actually been disbursed. The US media, however, has a tendency to count announced aid, rather than disbursed aid.

In addition, the US has not paid Pakistan for any services it has rendered in the war on terror since January 2011. The outstanding payments, due to come out of the Coalition Support Fund, now range between $2.5 billion to $3.4 billion, depending whether Islamabad still counts the rejected bills in the outstanding amount.

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Going by the encouraging outlook of Pakistani Army blocking the supplies of NATO, it is anyway a good gesture that the dependence on US is further reducing. The US money was coming with so many strings for the Pakistni civilians anyway that it was turning out to be an expensive funding.

Some short term funds could be generated by the idea of some of our friends here = confiscate and sell the NATO equipment in Pakistan. Even otherwise, what is the fun in taking this begairat money. Pakistan is surely much better than that. Hafeez Sheikh could try to increase taxes or may be ask more people to pay taxes to create the lost revenue. Or may be aid could be asked for from China. That is at least the ghairati way.