London: The United States would scratch the number of projects it funds in Pakistan by two-thirds as it seeks to focus its civilian support more forcefully in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to US officials.
The US would reduce its civilian aid programme in Pakistan to target 50 projects, down from 160 projects, a top US official told the Financial Times.
The US would put emphasize on achieving maximum visibility to help counter strong anti-American sentiment across Pakistan, inflamed by what many see as an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty by the covert raid in Abottabad that led to the death of bin Laden.
“A slash of assistance is not on the cards, unless there is another big surprise [like Bin Laden’s whereabouts],” said the US official.
“There is a lot of money in a lot of places . . . Aid is in a diffused state. We can say great things about what we are doing in Baluchistan and Sindh [provinces], but you don’t see it.”
American civilian assistance, boosted in 2009 by the authorisation of US$ 7.5 billion over five years, is to be funneled towards programmes in high impact sectors such as energy, education, open democracy, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and job creation. It would be subject to more careful monitoring, and streamlined to assure quicker transfer of money to Pakistan.
The reshaping of the aid programme coincides with a greater role for Marc Grossman, Washington’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Grossman replaced the late Richard Holbrooke, whose expansive style led to a proliferation of aid programmes. “Holbrooke was a floodlight,” said the US official explaining the different approaches of the two diplomats. “Grossman is a laser”.
The recalibration also comes as senior politicians in the US asked about the range of assistance to Pakistan amid constant doubts about its willingness and capability to fight militants striking targets within Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan’s leaders, however, insisted that it has suffered far greater death tolls than NATO in a battle that now threatens civil war in their own country. They claimed to have lost 35,000 people to the fight in the past decade.
The US is seeking ways to recover from a severe loss of confidence in Pakistan this year. The relationship has suffered what US officials describe as double “crises” of the arrest of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, in Lahore and the discovery, and subsequent killing, of bin Laden in a garrison city of Pakistan.
America’s top priority is to rebuild its intelligence sharing with Pakistan. Thereafter, it is concentrating on improved military to military contacts and a more effective aid programme.
Some US analysts predict a radical reassessment of the US aid flows to Pakistan, including tougher conditionality.
America has given Pakistan about US$ 20 billion worth of aid over the past nine years, making it one of the largest recipients of the US foreign assistance. It also spends about US$ 2 billion a week in its war effort in Afghanistan against Taliban and al Qaeda, many of whom depend on support and refuge in Pakistan.
Many Pakistani leaders have responded to the bin Laden killing by calling for a rejection of the US aid. “The outsiders want to do away with the sovereignty of the country by using the pretext of charity,” said Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab province, Pakistan’s most populous.
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