Calls for urgent non military aid for Pakistan
Updated
Two leading American senators are calling on the United States and Europe to give Pakistan immediate non military aid to ensure that the nuclear armed country does not slip into chaos. The call comes at the same time as foreign ministers from the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan meet in Washington to draft a new strategy to combat terrorism.
Presenter: Kanaha Sabapathy
Speakers: Shah Mehood Quershi, foreign minister, Pakistan; Dr Qareshi Bengali, economist, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad; Professor Mohamad Waseem, Lahore University
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SABAPATHY: Senators John Kerry and Chuck Hagel will soon be introducing the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act which aims to provide the South Asian nation with 7 point 5 billion dollars in non military aid over the next five years.
Senator Kerry says if the US and Europe fail Pakistan now then they will face a truly frightening prospect with terrorism, economic meltdown and spiraling radicalism engulfing a nation with a full arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Dr Qareshi Bengali, an economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan, is very pleased that it's non military aid that is being mooted.
BENGALI: All along Pakistan has received more military aid than economic aid and that has strengthened the military's relative political power and undermined democracy.
SABAPATHY: Since 2002 the US has provided Pakistan with some 12 billion dollars but Islamabad has failed to eliminate the terrorist threat on its border with Afghanistan.
Now in Washington for tri-party talks with his Afghan and US counterparts, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says his country is ready to fight the scourge of terrorism.
QUERSHI: There's a convergence between us, there's a willingness to work together and I see a lot of hope in the US administration, the new leadership, and Pakistan is willing to work with the American administration to fight extremism and terrorism.
SABAPATHY: The Taliban recently won Islamabad's agreement to establish sharia laws in the SWAT valley and there's growing concern that the militants are extending their tentacles into other parts of Pakistan.
The US bill aims to make aid available on the condition that Pakistan's security forces are making concerted efforts to prevent al Qaeda, its associated terrorist groups and the Taliban from operating on Pakistani territory.
Dr Bengali however says the current security crisis in Pakistan reflects the poor state of governance in the country.
BENGALI: I think what has happened is that over the last 25 to 30 years because the state is not delivering anything to the people, not just in terms of economics but even our judicial system is in disarray, there are a host of problems that are unresolved over many years, there are inter-provincial disputes which never get resolved, and because it is the large numbers of people in various parts of the country see the government as largely irrelevant. And I think this sense of irrelevance is what is creating insurgencies all over the place. If the government is to reorient its priorities from merely maintaining security to actually addressing the economic and social and the needs of the people, then I think there will be fewer insurgencies or maybe there will be no insurgencies and there will be no need for higher security expenditures.
SABAPATHY: Professor Mohamad Waseem from Lahore University says public disenchantment with the new government of Ali Asif Zardari will rise so long as the economy and law and order continues to deteriorate.
He says aid now would capacitate the government to stem these problems.
WASEEM: There is quite a bit of disenchantment because over the spiral of inflation in the country that has been one major source of frustration in the public and second of course is the law and order situation, the security. So these are the two major sources of alienation of the public from the leadership once there is an economic input in the form of aid from the United States then obviously there'll be a kind of a stabilisation of the economy and the leadership will be then stronger than it is today.
