No benefit from US aid?

Thursday, October 06, 2011 - It is with reference to the article “Who benefits from US aid?” (sept 30) by Akbar Zaidi. The writer has chosen a very popular theme and joined the band wagon of US and western countries to defame and malign the army. Akbar stated that $19 billion have been given to Pakistan by US, mostly to army from 2001 – 2010, which is not correct. In May the position was clarified in a press release by army. The actual payment is $12.522 billion, out of which only $8.647 billion were in cash from Coalition Support Funds (CSF) and $3.897, has been deducted for the training and services provided by Americans. Similarly, army received only $2 billion and as per Chief of Army Staff, more than $6 billion were provided to the government for the economic well being of the people. The writer must have taken the statistics from Congressional Research Service (CRS). In CRS $20 billion are allocated but not reimbursed. The amount given to Pakistan is neither an aid nor charity, as per Wikipedia (American aid) Coalition support fund which is reimbursement “to Pakistan for expenses already incurred and compensation for facilities made available to the coalition forces by Pakistan “. It further states “economic aid for Pakistan has ended up in back in the U.S., as funds are channeled through large U.S. contractors.

Military did commit the whose interest is served blunders but blaming them for every evil doing? Its part of the history that who chooses to align with US after independence and who all continued these so called long strategic relations with them. Its irony that we believe the west blindly and never trust own people and media. I can recall the hype created by western media against Pakistan’s forces after 2 May and now on Haqqani network. US never give fishing rod and it never did anything which could contribute towards the progress and development of the people. The $ 7.5 billion of KLB has been stopped and there is no sign of Reconstructions of Opportunity Zones. There is not even a single mega project established in Pakistan by US and it has been supporting the military or civil an rulers only for own interest. We always talk about the aid and never relied on own resources. We spend a dollar to get a penny holds good for us. We have suffered more than $68 billion losses besides 35000 casualties but still are trying to ditch each other. We must remember that whether it military losses or the civilian governments failure, the loss is of Pakistan. We must criticize and bring the culprits to book, may it be from civil or military but defaming and blaming the institutions is disastrous. Bad governance, corruption, poor law and order and self interests are causing us billions of dollars. If we unite to overcome these problems, then we can break the begging bowl. The way forward is to learn from mistakes and move forward to bring the prosperity in the country.

—Rawalpindi