US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter on Monday predicted that relations between the war partners would remain rocky but pledged greater effort to ensure that ordinary Pakistanis feel the fruits of US aid. In blunt remarks during a visit to New York, Munter insisted that Pakistan had made progress in some areas – such as improving relations with India – but acknowledged shortcomings. “I want to be straightforward about this.
This has been a rough year for our time with Pakistan and the difficulties that we’ve faced, the difficulties in the relationship, are going to continue,” Munter said at the Asia Society. “If I give myself a report card for the last year, C or D,” he said. Munter pointed to the Pakistani decision to throw out US trainers after US forces conducted a top-secret raid in May that killed most-wanted extremist Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Munter also noted the tensions over CIA employee Raymond Davis, who was arrested for shooting dead two men in Lahore. The US Congress in 2009 approved a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan, hoping to fight anti-American sentiment by investing in civilian institutions instead of just the military. But Munter said much of the assistance had been “invisible” to Pakistanis as it involved small projects and grants.
He said the US would now put a priority on boosting Pakistan’s energy supply, a major concern in a country with frequent blackouts and a rapidly growing population. “We’re going to push hard in energy and it’s going to cost a fair amount of American money, but it’s an investment in something that everyone in that country is going to feel,” he said. Appearing next to Munter, Rajiv Shah, head of the US Agency for International Development, said assistance has supported 170,000 “employment opportunities” and construction of 1,500 sites such as schools and clinics. “We don’t always talk about these results, but we need to because the programmes can work and they make a big difference,” he said.
