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Summary The US administration has earmarked $2.4 billion for assistance to Pakistan in 2013.
The US Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, Thomas Nides, during a special briefing at the State Department Monday, said that out of the total $56.4 billion funds of the State Department, 23 percent or $11.9 billion goes in defending our now security interests in the frontline states of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.Our Civilian Overseas Contingency Operations budget, better known for OCO, funds the temporary extraordinary cost associated with these missions. Using the same methodology from the last year’s request, we’ve asked for $8.2 billion in OCO, and $3.7 billion in our base budget for a total of $11.9 billion for the frontline states, he informed.For Pakistan, our 2013 request is $2.4 billion including civilian and security assistance, he said adding that the proposed allocation for Pakistan includes funds to strengthen democratic institutions, countering extremism, supporting joint counterterrorism efforts, and protecting our civilians on the ground.The requests made by the US administration in the budget have to be approved by the Congress and Senate as per the law of the land.Deputy Secretary Nides conceded that the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bills funds for Pakistan had been reduced from $1.5 billion last year to $1.1 billion for 2013, whereas the security assistance for Pakistan was staying the same. Commenting on the nature of Pak-US relationship, he said, our relationship with Pakistan is challenging, but make no mistake, effective cooperation with Pakistan is critical to Afghanistan’s future and to America’s national security.Later, explaining the reduction in civilian assistance to Pakistan, a senior State Department official said that the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, enacted in 2010, authorized up to $1.5 billion each year to Pakistan for five years. For the first couple of years, we requested $1.5 billion from the Congress but despite negotiations, we never got that high, he recalled.Given the budget constraints, we have decided to request a little bit lower than the 1.5 billion dollars, and we did the same thing last year by requesting $1.1 billion from Congress, he informed adding that the US administration was at about 1.1 billion for Kerry-Lugar bill, for the non-military assistance programme.It means that to get to the $7.5 billion of what we refer to as Kerry-Lugar-Berman funding, it’s just going to take us a little bit longer. But we still have a very, very robust commitment to Pakistan, he emphasised.On the actual expenditures of KLB during last three years, the money has not moved as quickly as we would want, because of various difficulties on the ground and with the government in Pakistan, he agreed responding to a question.In addition to this civilian assistance of 1.1 billion dollars, there is money in military assistance, the traditional foreign military assistance, which is part of a multiyear agreement, he said.Even though we have our challenges with the government right now, we wanted to make sure that the budget reflected the nature of the program, its importance to our security, importance to our efforts in that region, he observed.The $2.4 billion Pakistan budget, which includes those two things plus the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, is a strong statement of US support for Pakistan, the official argued adding that Pakistan, with an assistance programme, at over a billion dollars was still one of the largest recipients of assistance in the US budget.Responding to a question about the level of civilian assistance for Pakistan during the current fiscal, he said we have about $1 billion in non-military assistance for Pakistan in 2012.It has been hovering around that level for Pakistan for the last few years, so we are confident to get these proposals approved frm the Congress, he said when asked about the possibility of approval of US administrations proposals.We’re going to have a lot of negotiation to do, so we’re going to make the best argument we can and we’ll have to work out with the Congress ultimately what the final appropriation for Pakistan is going to be, the State Department official stated.The nonmilitary assistance piece (1.1 billion dollars), the foreign military finance piece (300 million dolars), and the Pakistan Coalition Support Fund (800 million) are the three components of our assistance to Pakistan, he dilated.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC
