The US House of Representatives has approved $150 million in new assistance for Pakistan to address economic needs in the next fiscal year. The assistance is included in the war supplemental budget measure into the year 2009, beginning from October 1, 2008.
The $150 million will be in addition to allocations Pakistan will receive under regular budget for 2009. The US administration has already requested a total of $901 million for Pakistan in the year 2009. The Senate is going to take it up the measure shortly.
Meanwhile, the United States has also made a long-expected reimbursement tranche of $373.841 million to Pakistan under coalition support fund. The release of the tranche, which has taken place after the inception of the new democratic government, puts at rest the reports to the effect that the reimbursement had been put on hold.
A senior US military commander, meanwhile, Tuesday acknowledged Pakistan's massive security efforts along Pakistan-Afghanistan border and said anti-terrorism partners in the region are trying to build on lines of communication.
"I'm convinced that they have tried hard over a period of time to address the lack of stability in the Fata, in the North-West Frontier Provinces. They've - I'll note that they've lost well over a thousand soldiers over the last couple years in trying to do so," Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, who commands combined Joint Task Force- 101 in eastern Afghanistan, said.
Answering a question, he said senior Pakistani, coalition-US and Afghan security officials are working in a joint investigation into the June 10 air strike incident in Mohmand area. "When I met with my counterpart there in Pakistan, I expressed condolences to any loss of life," he said. "My personal opinion of it is, is that we can actually work more closely, as I've already described."
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