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Thursday March 28, 2024

US withheld amount equal to Pakistan’s one-day expense: Miftah

By Khalid Mustafa & Mehtab Haider
January 04, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Withholding $255 million military aid by Washington is not a matter of concern as the said amount is equal to expenses incurred on one working day of the federal and provincial governments which has been arranged fromindigenous resources, Dr Miftah Ismail, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, said on Wednesday.

“The amount of $225 million was to be used for purchasing military equipment for enhancing the capability of security forces to effectively continue the war against terrorism,” Miftah told The News

However, the adviser said, the refusal to extend the said amount by the Trump administration is tantamount to compromising the ability of the forces to take on the terrorists but the Pakistan government is cognizant of the fact that the ongoing military operation has entered a crucial phase and to this effect the required financing will be ensured at all costs.

Exposing the so-called aid from the US, he said that during the last year, Pakistan received just $1 billion out of which $550 million (more than half of $1 billion) was provided to Pakistan in the head of Coalition Support Fund (CSF). He explained that the CSF does not mean aid as under this head the US authorities reimburse the amount against expenses incurred on the war against terrorism.

Miftah said the remaining amount stands at $450 million which the country received last year from the US out of which half of the amount was about the military aid. “The US authorities are not extending substantial aid to Pakistan which they are marketing in the world. The facts speak otherwise,” he added.

Miftah said Pakistan in return has provided air and ground facilities to the US authorities for the war against Taliban and other terrorist outfits in Afghanistan and more importantly Nato vehicles used Pakistan's road network.

To a question, he said China is very much behind Pakistan against the new tirade of President Trump and to this effect Pakistan and China have decided to increase the pace on construction activities to complete the CPEC projects.

About the $33 billion aid the Trump administration is talking about, a senior official said that in the last 15 years, under the CSF Pakistan received $14.5 billion against the expenses of $21 billion by Pakistan armed forces against the war on terrorism and the remaining amount was given to Pakistan as aid, but mostly in the project modes out of which the US authorities appointed their own consultants, and hired US firms for studies required for the so-called projects which means that most of the amount given in the head of aid to Pakistan has gone back to the US.

Meanwhile, Pakistan sent out total billing of $23.65 billion on account of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) to USA after reconciling here at the US Embassy since 2002 but received $14.4 billion, indicating that the outstanding amount stood at more than $9 billion at a time when Donald Trump was using threatening tone through tweets.

“The US used to reimburse the whole amount in the shape of CSF from 2002 to 2006-7 but afterwards they started cutting down and stopping the CSF funds. Pakistan’s outstanding amount stood at more than $9 billion just right now as we sent out billing to the tune of $23.6 billion but received back only $14.41 billion,” Adviser to PM on Finance Miftah Ismail confirmed while talking to The News on phone on Wednesday evening.

Contrary to Trump's claim for providing $33 billion to Pakistan in the last 15 years, Miftah Ismail said that Pakistan got around $27 to $28 billion from USA for all kinds of arrangements. In a bid to satisfy the USA, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had offered them to select a US based firm for conducting audit of aid provided to Pakistan to verify facts and figures.

US had authorised $33.4 billion for Pakistan including CSF, economic and military assistance but there was a gap between the authorised money and actual disbursement. So the actual disbursement remained at around $27 billion and little aid was provided for boosting the country’s economy.

The Adviser to PM on Finance said that the off budget assistance was used for different kinds of objectives as Shakil Afridi’s network was also financed from this amount. It is relevant to mention here that Dr Shakil Afridi had helped the US for hunting Osama Bin Laden from Abbottabad. It means that US had used the money for pursuing its national objectives here in our homeland, said economic analysts and added the US money helped consultants, mostly foreign, to become richer but did not help in improving our economy on sustained and durable basis.