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US unlikely to stem aid flow to Pakistan

By Arun Kumar

Washington, Nov 5 (IANS) The US says it will have to review its aid to Pakistan after declaration of emergency, but indications are that Pakistan will continue to get the money in the name of fighting terror.

“We’re going to review aid. But look, we do have continuing counter-terrorism concerns and we have to be able to protect America and protect American citizens by continuing to fight against terrorists,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

“And we have a significant counter-terrorism effort in Pakistan and so we have to review this whole situation,” she told the US media travelling with her in Jerusalem in response to questions about President Pervez Musharraf’s action.

Pakistan this year will receive about $700 million in US economic and military assistance and in 2008 is expected to receive more than $800 million. It has received about $10 billion in US aid since 2001, much of that in counter-terrorism assistance.

Rice, who had spoken to Musharraf Oct 31 apparently to dissuade him from declaring emergency rule, said “all of our assistance programmes” would be reviewed. But she hastened to add: “Now obviously, again, I want to underscore the president has an obligation to protect the United States, to protect Americans.

“That means that we have to be very cognisant of the counter-terrorism operations that we are involved in. We have to be very cognisant of the fact that some of the assistance that has been going to Pakistan is directly related to the counter-terrorism mission.

“So this is a complicated matter. We have to remember that we are going to continue to fight the war on terror.”

Asked if it meant that any money or any financial aid involving counter-terrorism is unlikely to be cut, Rice repeated: “I said we have to review it and I’m just giving you one of the concerns that everybody ought to have at this point, which is that America needs to be able to continue to protect itself and to fight the counter-terrorism mission.”

Declining to get into the details of her conversations with Musharraf, Rice said she had “relayed the message that I’ve been giving publicly, which is the United States could not support any extra-constitutional measures”.

“I’m disappointed at this decision, sure. I think the decision sets Pakistan back in terms of the considerable progress that it had made along the road to democratic change.”

Rice said she wouldn’t call it a setback for the US, “but certainly, we have been proponents of a democratic path for Pakistan and it is a setback on the democratic path for Pakistan, but it does not have to remain one if the constitutional order returns and if Pakistan holds these elections on time”.

Asked how lack of US support to Musharraf’s action would manifest itself beyond public statements, Rice added: “I am not going to speculate until we’ve had a chance to review it.”

The US “has never put all of its chips on Musharraf”, Rice said in response to another question. What the US has done is to support policies in Pakistan that had moved Pakistan quite far along a democratic path, including significant assistance to educational and economic reform.

“So the assistance was not to Musharraf; the assistance was to Pakistan… the support was to the Pakistani people and Pakistani reform and the reform of its institutions.”

Asked to comment on reports that elections in Pakistan may be delayed following declaration of emergency, Rice said: “I have not heard an official response to the question of when elections will take place. We have a very clear view that the elections need to take place on time, which would mean the beginning of the year.

“We expect that pledge to hold free and fair elections is going to be upheld… And it is our policy, it is our view, and we’ve communicated very clearly to the Pakistanis that the holding of free and fair elections is an absolute necessity,” she said in response to a question if she trusted Musharraf or his commitment to the democratic process.

On what Washington’s next step would be, Rice stated: “We will wait to see what the extent of this is… We’ve been very clear, too, that we would hope that everyone would act with restraint. There really should not be violence, there should not be activity that will disturb calm, because it’s a difficult time for Pakistan.”