By IANS
Islamabad : Reports in the US that the Bush administration has been giving $1 billion a year for the past six years to the Pakistan Army has embarrassed the latter with a spokesperson stating that it did not receive anything "directly from the US".
An official spokesman said Wednesday what it gets from the Pakistan government is "through a well institutionalised and transparent framework and all its expenditures are subject to checks and audit".
Geo TV channel, in its "Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Saath" programme, alleged that the army was receiving $1 billion a year from the US and that there was "no accountability of this funding".
Rejecting the report, an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman said the Pakistan Army was not getting any reimbursement or financial support directly from any country. "The army, like all other state institutions, asks the government for financial assistance."
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Mahmood Ali Durrani said that Pakistan was just a "shopkeeper" and that the money received from the US was spent "only on services for the US".
Commenting on a New York Times report on the $1 billion payment to Pakistan for its cooperation in the 'war on terror', Durrani told Voice of America that he had to face "problems in Washington instead of cooperation" because the media had created "a very negative impression of Pakistan".