It is with reference to the article “Who benefits from US aid?” (30 September). The writer has chosen a very popular theme and joined the bandwagon of US and western countries to defame and malign the army. He stated that $19 billion have been given to Pakistan by US, mostly to army from 2001 – 2010, which is not correct. In May, the position was clarified in a press release by army. The actual payment is $12.522 billion, out of which only $8.647 billion were in cash from Coalition Support Funds (CSF) and $3.897, has been deducted for the training and services provided by the Americans.
Similarly, army received only $2 billion and as per Chief of Army Staff, more than $6 billion were provided to the government for the economic well being of the people. The writer must have taken the statistics from Congressional Research Service (CRS). In CRS $20 billion are allocated but not reimbursed. The amount given to Pakistan is neither an aid nor charity. As per Wikipedia (American aid) Coalition Support Fund is a reimbursement “to Pakistan for expenses already incurred and compensation for facilities made available to the coalition forces by Pakistan.” It further states “economic aid for Pakistan has ended up back to the US, as funds are channeled through large US contractors. A US lawmaker also said a large sum of US economic aid has not left the US as it was spent on consulting fees and overhead cost”.
Military did commit the blunders but blaming them as the root cause of every evildoing is serving whose interests? It’s part of the history as to who chose to align with the US after independence and who continued these so-called strategic relations with them.
I can recall the hype created by western media against Pakistan’s forces after 2 May and now on Haqqani network. The $ 7.5 billion of KLB has been stopped and there is no sign of Reconstruction of Opportunity Zones. There is not even a single mega project established in Pakistan by US and it has been supporting the military or civilian rulers only for its own interest.
We always talk about the aid and never relied on own resources. We spend a dollar to get a penny worth goods for us. We have suffered more than $68 billion losses besides 35000 casualties but still are trying to ditch each other. We must remember that whether military loses or the civilian governments fail, the loss is of Pakistan.
We must criticise and bring the culprits to book, may it be from civil or military but defaming and blaming the institutions is disastrous. Bad governance, corruption, poor law and order and self-interests are causing us billions of dollars. If we unite to overcome these problems, then we can break the begging bowl. The way forward is to learn from mistakes.
SHAHID ZAHUR
Rawalpindi
