Pakistan in Media

The US Congress has approved aid of $2.3 billion for Pakistan. This obviously means President Zardari, leading a team which held meetings with top economic advisers in Washington, can count the visit as a success. This is all the more so as approval has also been sought for an aid package for the coming fiscal year. The aid offer, however, will bring with it issues. One of these is the question of how the aid will be disbursed. The US wishes to do so through non-government organizations of various kinds. The government would much rather have direct access to the funds. But it will have to live with a much closer monitoring of the use of aid than it has been accustomed to in the past. The US has made it clear it will be bringing in expanded staff to supervise the process. The suspicion that funds given in the past have not always been used for the purposes they were intended for has of course been confirmed by recent comments from former president Pervez Musharraf about military equipment moving with units to the Indian border. This deviation from a focus of the war on terror is quite obviously not something Washington wishes to see.

The new US administration has also made it clear it wishes to see investment in education and the social sector. Pakistan has also been asked to draw up clear projects for this. For the people of Pakistan, the change in emphasis from military aid alone to a more mixed package is probably good news. It reflects too a recognition that to a very large extent militancy is bred by the devastating lack of social equity. But recent US comments and the embassy expansion on in Islamabad makes it quite apparent Washington intends to remain engaged in Pakistan for a considerable period of time. There must be a big question mark over the issue of whether this is good news or the opposite – given the resentment that exists over the US role in Pakistan and its exploitation of the country to further its own interests. This is an equation Islamabad will need to juggle carefully. In the immediate future, it obviously needs aid. There is much urgent work to be done in Swat and other conflict-zones which simply cannot be delayed. In the longer-term, Pakistan needs to carefully assess its relationship with the US and find a way to set it out on a more equal footing, so that Washington acts as a friend rather than as a master.