US Senator Proposes Massive Increase in Foreign Aid to Pakistan

[fatman17]

US Senator Proposes Massive Increase in Foreign Aid to Pakistan

By Meredith Buel
Islamabad
19 February 2008

An influential member of the U.S. Congress, Senator Joseph Biden, is proposing a massive increase in non-military financial aid to Pakistan. Senator Biden made the proposal during a news conference in Islamabad and VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details.

Senator Biden, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he believes Pakistan has taken an important step on the road to democracy with this week's parliamentary elections.

Senator Biden called the election, which resulted in a major defeat for parties supporting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, credible and reflecting the will of the country's moderate majority.

Biden said the new government of Pakistan should enjoy what he called "a democracy dividend."

"I believe, I am speaking only for myself now, that we should be tripling our non-military assistance," he said. "We should sustain that commitment for a 10-year period. We should be focused on helping you build schools and roads and health care centers and dealing with the infrastructure of the entire country."

Currently the United States gives Pakistan $500 million in non-military aid per year. So under Senator Biden's proposal that figure would jump to $1.5 billion.

This would be in addition to the billions of dollars in American aid given to Pakistan's army to fight al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants on the country's border with Afghanistan.

Before the election, Senator Biden said the United States should cut military aid to Pakistan if the polls were rigged.

Senator Biden traveled to Pakistan to observe the election with two other members of the Senate, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel.

The three met with President Musharraf and Senator Kerry described Mr. Musharraf's reaction to the election results.

"He made it clear to us that he looks forward to working with the other parties," he said. "He expects the new prime minister and the new government to govern. He said he would respect the power of that prime minister in the new government."

President Musharraf has been a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, but Senator Biden suggested it is time to broaden American foreign policy.

"This is an opportunity for us to move from a policy that has been focused on a personality to one based upon an entire people and a move to a genuine Pakistani policy," he added.

Senator Biden says it is time for Pakistani leaders to focus on the future, restore constitutional order, insure a free media and an independent judiciary.

 

[blain2]

Valid point but at this time its only a personal opinion of the senator (which he can easily back out of claiming others did not share in this opinion).

1.5 Billion per year in economic assistance to Pakistan compared to $1 billion a week being spent in Iraq on military operations...sounds like a no-brainer to me but then if the same amount per year had been spent in Afghanistan post Soviet withdrawal, the GWOT would not have been needed....ahh but hindsight is always perfect...I do hope that people take lessons from the past otherwise all of us are bound to repeat it.

 

[mujahideen]

It is good news that we will supposedly be getting this aid, but quiet honestly I will believe it when that money is transferred to Pakistan's bank account.

 

[khanz]

i'm glad this is non-military aid i really hope this goes mostly towards education coz we really need to boost our literacy rate

 

[MOSABJA]

Yeah I have always disliked mush for being so bad at bargain.


Husnie Mubarak of Egypt got all of his debt(29 billion $ ) paid for co operation in the first gulf war.

Turkey was offered 38 billion $ for logistic support against Iraq in 2003.

and We ve got 10 billion in 7 years for more than 1000 troops killed,suicide bombings ________________.


Why cant Mush say hey we want our 40 billion $ forgiven.


he is selling him self and the whole nation for peanuts.

 

[Mustapha]

Atleast there is a personality in the Senate who actually realizes Pakistan's contribution and wants to return the favor by contributing non-millitary aid to Pakistan.

Finally some gratitude!

 

[maqsad]

There is no question pakistan is getting ripped off, blackmailed and generally scammed in the war on terror. Something is drastically wrong with the equation. First of all Pakistan has been bought for chump change mainly due to open and probably hidden blackmail.

* After wot the western part of pakistan has more terrorists.

* After wot the western part of pakistan has more people who hate the military.

* After wot pakistan has more bombings and suicide attacks

* After wot pakistan has more soldiers dying at a higher rate

* After wot suddenly people in the US talk about stealing pak nukes

* After wot thinktanks in the US talk about an independent Balochistan

* After wot French and Chinese engineers are attacked by suicide bombers

* After wot pak military was forced to start attacking its own civilians

* After wot CIA gets permission to launch missiles to kill anyone in pakistan


And what has pakistan gained from all of this besides a smile and a pat on the shoulder? Uncle Sam promised not to bomb pakistan to the stone age...is that a very big special favor? What about the instability that might result in civil war? Is that worth $1 billion a year in military aid?

Obviously desperation and economic and technological weakness is a big reason for this sorry state but no need to add stupidity to the equation and believe this is the best thing that could have happened to pakistan. Things are seriously rotten and need to be fixed.

 

[Mustapha]

lol...Atleast they should try to help out Pakistan in the Kashmir dispute, I mean that would help a lot... rather they expect Pakistan to bow down to their will and become their slave...lol...

 

[Neo]

first of all I'd like to say that USaid to Pakistan is not free at all, most of it comes as loans and has to be repayed within 30 years. Trippling economic aid to $1.5 billion per years would do wonders for our economy but there are much better ways for US to help us grow and progress on our own witholut financial aid.

We've been trying to sign BIT since 2004, still it seems a distant dreams due anti-Pakistan lobby in Congress. Then there's the export quota restrictions for many Pakistni products. Initially we had a waiver after 9/11 for our support in WoT but thats restricted to few items only, with full FTA with US we can atleast tripple our bilateral trade within five years.
US has been promising a lot of stuff conditionally (restoration of democracy) which seems a waste of time since most projects if implimented would have helped the populace rather than the government.

If US really wants to help us, let them approve:
- BIT
- FTA
- ToT of civil engineering and power production
- Enhance Visa Waiver for Businessmen and Students
- Allow non-stop flight services between the countries

This is much cheaper alternative than trippling aid since all these measures will boost economy hence GDP and directly return the gains to the comon man which again will reduce anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.

Just my do paisa....

 

[solid snake]

^^ great suggestions. That we also don't lose much to corruption.

 

[Neo]

We need a major shift on our own foreign policy aswell. Sofar economic aid is designed and designated by the donor disragarding our first needs. Donor gets better gains than the recipient in terms of contracts and supplies, we don't get to choose the contractors but they are allocated and assigned with the aid, not always the cheapest or best option from our p.o.v.

GoP should chalk out a plan, kind of 'must have' priority list and all financial and economic aid should be allocated to various sectors from top to bottom.
Right now power generation and infrastructure is costing us $3-5 billion per annum according to a recend ADB study. All economic aid should be diverted to this sector for atleast 3 years till the problem is solved, the revenue generated from it will be much higher than all aid we get in three years which again can be used to increase development budget through state treasury instead of foreign aid.

 

[mujahideen]

US may stop direct budgetary support: Procedure for economic aid changed

By Khaleeq Kiani

ISLAMABAD, Feb 24: Pakistan has received $289 million from the United States on account of war on terror reimbursements for the October-December 2007 period, but the normal US economic assistance would no more be available to Islamabad for direct budgetary support, it is learnt.

Sources in the Finance Ministry told Dawn on Sunday that last week’s inflow of $289 million was purely on account of services provided by Pakistan to the

US in war on terror and was based on bills submitted by Islamabad after item-to-item verification by the authorities in Washington.

Pakistan has so far been paid about $5 billion in reimbursements for services, mostly military services and logistic support, at the rate of $80-100 million per month depending on actual expenditures incurred by Islamabad.

However, the sources said that the procedure for economic aid to Pakistan had been changed since November last year owing to increasing accountability issues raised by some US lawmakers in recent months.

They said Pakistan used to get about $300 million as direct disbursement for annual budgetary support under the $3 billion assistance package the two countries had finalised for Islamabad joining the war on terror about five years ago. These funds would now go directly to the specific development projects mostly in health and education sectors through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that would also oversee award of contracts and payments thereof, except for less than $100 million that may still be available for direct budget support, the sources added.

The sources did not agree to a notion that the US administration was withdrawing direct budgetary financing to Pakistan’s new government – a facility that has been available to military-led government all these years. They said it had more to do with the pressure the Bush administration faced due to accountability concerns expressed by the Democrats.

The sources hinted that the US administration was in close contact with Islamabad to help arrange alternate avenues that might include some financing through development institutions.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves declined from $16.4 billion in October 2007 to about $14.08 billion on February 15, owing to increased pressure arising out of higher oil imports, increasing balance of payment deficit and lower than expected inflows, particularly on account of privatisation proceeds and international bonds etc.

Overall, Pakistan has so far received about $10 billion since 2001 from the United States. More than half of this amount pertained to expenditure incurred by Pakistan on services provided to the US. Washington has been providing about $300 million to Islamabad since 2004, as part of the $3 billion package half of which was meant for supply of intelligence and military hardware.

Under the package, Pakistan used to get about $600 million, $300 million military assistance and $300 million in economic assistance.

US may stop direct budgetary support: Procedure for economic aid changed -DAWN - Top Stories; February 25, 2008