Author: PTI
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: November 21, 2007
URL: http://ia.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/21us.htm
Pakistan has used a significant portion of
the US aid since September 11 attack to arm itself for a confrontation with
India instead of conducting war on terrorism, says a strategic think tank.
Most of the $10 billion US aid is supposed
to compensate the Pakistani government for sending its 80,000 or so soldiers
to the Northwest Frontier Province and providing support to the US war in
Afghanistan.
However the money has been used for procuring
high-tech weaponry to arm the military for its confrontation with India, the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has said.
"We found that that the Pakistani military
has been using that money and the majority of our direct military assistance
for the purchase of high-tech weaponry such as the F-16 fighters," senior
adviser in the CSIS Frederick (Rick) Barton said.
"It appears that the Pakistan military
is continuing to arm more for its confrontation with India than it is for
the war on terror because these weapons really don't have that much application
for the kinds of low-grade persistent Taliban fighters and al Qaida fighters
that you find in the Northwest part of Pakistan," Barton told the National
Public Radio.
Urging Washington to make a more strategic
use of the money it gives Pakistan, Barton said, "If we had wise approach
to war on terror, we would have found ways to align ourselves more with the
Pakistan people. Because the only way you can deal this kind of insurgency
is to have the people on your side and to not have the people harbouring the
insurgents."
One of the key points that the CSIS study
pointed out was that the US needs to re-establish a whole new kind of relationship
with Pakistan, Barton said.
In the 90s, the US stayed away from Pakistan
for 10 years, following Pakistan's nuclear weapons development.
He said Pakistan deserved a great deal of
attention, which the US has never done.
"We constantly flush them with money,
then head for exists and none of those approaches really work.''
He said only 10 per cent of the aid had gone
to education and humanitarian causes and the majority of that went in response
to the earthquake where tens and thousands of people were killed.
The US gave direct humanitarian assistance
and military assistance and as a result the US public support in Pakistan
went up from about 25 per cent to well over 50 per cent.
''None of these polls mean that much, but
part of what we want to do as a country is to make it clear that we are on
the side of the people, not just the powerful,''said Barton.
He said America's second-largest area of humanitarian
expense was in education, but there again the US is trying to do a million
different things rather than focusing on particular areas where it might have
higher impact.
Barton said during their work they found that
what the Pakistani education system really needed was bucking up on the teacher
workforce. The reason a lot of people send their children in Pakistan to madrasas
is that the local public schools don't exist or if they do, teachers don't
show up because they don't get paid.
''If we can get the teacher force working
in a constructive way in that country, you will probably be able to reach
the 50 per cent of the population that is under 20.''
Barton said that the US could not walk away
from Pakistan as it had tried that before and the conditions did not get better.
However, the US did need to be smarter in dealing with Pakistan.
''We should look to the provinces. There are
four provinces that are not particularly happy with the central government
model. We should not be working through Islamabad all the time.
''I think we can a constructive influence
on this country and help them through a vital transition. If this transition
does not go well, we have huge problems in the most populated part of the
world and that isn't a good situation when three of the eight nuclear powers
are also right there.''
