By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : Pakistan has diverted much of the over $5 billion US anti-terror aid to finance weapon systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, officials of the Bush administration and military have said.
Acknowledging that there were too few controls over the money given to Pakistan over the past six years since 9/11, some US officials have called for completely revamping the strategy to improve the Pakistani military, The New York Times (NYT) reported in a lead story Monday.
The Pentagon last week completed a review and produced a classified plan to help the Pakistani military build an effective counter-insurgency force. The plan, that now goes to the US embassy in Islamabad, seeks to focus American military aid toward specific equipment and training for Pakistani forces operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas where Al Qaeda leaders and local militants hold sway, the NYT has written.
The paper also quotes US officials in Islamabad and Washington as saying that the US has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.
But Pakistani officials deny accusations of overcharging, instead criticising American ingratitude for Pakistani counter-terrorism efforts that have claimed the lives of a thousand Pakistani soldiers and police officers.
The $5 billion military aid to Pakistan was routed through a programme called Coalition Support Funds, which reimburses Pakistan for conducting military operations to fight terrorism. Under a separate programme, Pakistan receives $300 million per year in traditional American military financing that pays for equipment and training, the paper reported.
Civilian opponents of President Pervez Musharraf have claimed he has misused reimbursements to prop up his government.
US Congress voted last week to put restrictions on the $300 million in military financing to the country for fiscal 2008 and withheld $50 million of that money until Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certifies that Islamabad has been restoring democratic rights since Musharraf lifted a state of emergency Dec 16. The measure had little effect on the far larger Coalition Support Funds reimbursements, the NYT said.
Pakistan’s military relies on Washington for roughly a quarter of its entire $4 billion budget.
For their part, Pakistani military officials blame delays in US giving them certain equipment for hampering the war against extremists. US military officials say in defence that US army was so overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan that it had no advanced helicopters to give to Pakistan. Besides, American law restricts the export of sophisticated drones, night-vision goggles, and similar equipment for security reasons.