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Old Saturday, April 18, 2009
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Pakistanis see aid pledge as political boon

By Raza Khan

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Saturday, April 18, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan | Industrialized nations Friday pledged more than $5 billion in new aid to Pakistan - a development Pakistanis say has as much political as economic significance in bolstering a beleaguered civilian government.

Ashfaq Hassan Khan, a former chief economic adviser in Pakistan, told The Washington Times that the funds pledged at a conference in Tokyo, which include $1 billion from the United States over two years, were a "significant achievement."

"Firstly, Pakistan got $5.28 billion instead of $4.25 billion, which it asked for from the friends of Pakistan. ... Secondly, the pledges have come as a big message from the world that it is genuinely interested in Pakistan's stability and progress and it is willing to cooperate.

"I think the announcement of assistance to Pakistan is more of a political importance than it is of economic significance."

The pledges reflect international concern about expanding Taliban influence in Pakistan. Militants exploiting economic discontent and unemployment have moved in recent months far beyond tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan to Punjab, Pakistan's most populous state.

Earlier this week, President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to the implementation of Islamic law in the scenic Swat Valley, only 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad. On Thursday, authorities released on bail Maulana Abdul Aziz, the leader of Islamabad's militant Red Mosque, despite charges related to a 2007 siege at the mosque that led to the deaths of at least 100 people.
The cleric defiantly returned to the mosque Friday and urged the implementation of the Shariah law across the country.

"I tell you that you should be ready to make sacrifices for Islam," he told an audience that spilled into surrounding streets. "What we have seen in Swat and the tribal areas is the result of the sacrifices at the Red Mosque: the students, the people who were martyred."

In approving new aid at the Tokyo conference, "the participants ... noted concern about the security situation in Pakistan and the impact on development, the investment climate and growth," co-chairs Japan and the World Bank said in a statement.

Aid is to be targeted at health, education, governance and building democracy.

Pakistan is also seeking to build hydroelectric dams, roads and other projects aimed at improving security along the Afghan border.

Zafar Moeen Nasir, chief economic researcher at the state-run Pakistan Institute of Developmental Economics in Islamabad, said the new aid would help compensate Pakistan for $35 billion he said had been lost due to the country's participation in the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
"I think the pledges at Tokyo are indications that U.S. and other friends of Pakistan want Pakistan to be a stable country," he said.

However, Abdul Mateen, a former Pakistani diplomat at the United Nations, said he was not optimistic that the money would solve Pakistan's fundamental economic problems.

"Aid and assistance is only good if it is spent productively, as it generates resources, skills, learning and so on," he said. "Unless it leads to development, the aid or loan is dysfunctional. The pledges made at Tokyo for Pakistan would give the country relief and even growth but would not insure development, which is badly required."

Since he unveiled it last month, President Obama's new strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan has received a mixed reception from leading political and military analysts in Pakistan.

Most say the "Af-Pak strategy" improves on past U.S. policy by paying equal attention to Pakistan's social and economic development as well as its military prowess, but some complain that the main focus remains U.S. security.

Leading political and security analyst Hassan Askari Rizvi welcomed the emphasis on building the capacity of Pakistani institutions.
"The strategy calls for continued improvement of socioeconomic conditions in Pakistan so that extremists and terrorists have less space to encroach upon," Mr. Rizvi told The Times. "The American administration is trying to complement the use of force with socioeconomic diplomacy."
He said the Obama strategy is also better than past policies because it is the product of more consultation with Pakistanis at both official and non-official levels.

The new policy pledges $1.5 billion in annual economic aid to Pakistan for five years to improve infrastructure and education. The State Department said Friday the $1 billion pledged in Tokyo is a "down payment" on that aid, which must be approved by Congress. The money, the State Department said, is slated "to build schools, roads and hospitals; help farmers improve their ability to raise crops and deliver them to the marketplace; stimulate new energy infrastructure; and strengthen Pakistans democracy."

Shafqat Mahmood, a former Pakistani senator who is now a popular newspaper columnist, said the motive remains securing the American homeland as well as U.S. forces in South Asia and the Middle East from Muslim extremist attacks. Pakistan will get assistance only if it implements U.S. aims, he said.

"It is not radically different strategy as may be perceived," he said. "Rather, its focus is quite narrow. It means Americans think foreign elements are there and Pakistan must ensure that they should not be a threat to U.S. interests in the region."

Tahir Amin, chairman of the International Relations Department of Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, agreed.
The new policy "is still focused on military force and drone attacks," he said. "The most sad aspect of the Obama strategy is that it is focused on American interests without taking into consideration that of Pakistan. It seems the strategy calls for imposing an American mission on Pakistan while it has put the Kashmir issue on the back burner."

Mr. Amin said the fallout of the new strategy would be negative for both the U.S. and Pakistan.

"Intending or otherwise, the implementation of Obama strategy would push Pakistan towards chaos as acts of terrorism would proliferate in length and breadth of the country, and this has very much started happening. For Americans, it would cultivate far deeper antagonistic feelings in Pakistan."
Retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a well-known security analyst, said the most important aspect of the shift is that "Pakistan has been looked at as part of a much greater zone of conflict, not as an individual issue." He said the strategy also shows more sensitivity to Pakistani concerns over U.S. infringement on its sovereignty.

Frequent air strikes by U.S. drones targeted at al Qaeda and Taliban militants inside Pakistan close to the Afghan border have been a source of tension between Islamabad and Washington. While Pakistani leaders decry such raids in public, officials in both capitals suggest there is a tacit agreement to allow them.

"Unless Pakistan establishes its own sovereignty by taking decisive action against terrorists and insurgents, Americans cant be blamed of trespassing our sovereignty," Mr. Masood said.
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