Obama administration's stringent conditionalities tied to its $1.5 billion assistance per year, an amount no more than five percent of Pakistan's 2008-09 budget, reflects the failure of President Asif Ali Zardari to effectively present Pakistan's case.
The US assistance is far less than what Pakistan actually requires. Apart from this, Zardari and his delegation also failed in convincing the US not to attach heavy conditionalities. Pakistani authorities will have no say in priorities to be set by the US. Former Finance Minister Salman Shah said that Zardari and his delegation should have concentrated on getting access to the US market.
Besides market access, the government should also have urged the United States to play its due role in getting Pakistan foreign debt written off. This was the right time to launch this initiative as the people are suffering from widespread militancy.
However, he supported the provision of $1.5 billion, as Pakistan needs the assistance due to the economic crunch. "If the US assistance was not there, Pakistan would have to take a loan of $15 billion over next 10 years," he added. But the size of the assistance is only 5 percent of the total budget of Pakistan and it would have no significant impact on the economy.
The former finance advisor also said that Pakistani government should have played an effective role to attract the US private sector to invest in the social sector in a bid to improve the social status of the masses including education, health and infrastructure. The President and his delegation ignored this important aspect.
He said that US thinks that Pakistani textile would destroy its domestic industries. "This assumption is based on wrong hypothesis. Pakistani goods would have competition with the goods of other countries." PML (N) leader Siddiqul Farooq said that the actual outcome of Zardari visit would be seen when statements of leaders of the two countries come to implementation stage.
"I don't understand the setting of priorities by the US. This is something, which looks to be the difficult part of the American assistance," he added. It is really disturbing that the military operation was re-launched in Swat and the President was in the US. The PML (N) call for All-Parties Conference (APC) was ignored.
The national unity must have preceded the offensive against militants in Swat and other areas of Malakand Division. An ANP leader pleading not be named said that the US assistance should have been rejected by the President. Pakistan needs a lot of international help to wipe out extremism and terrorism.
According to rough estimates, Pakistan suffered losses of $32 billion so far in war on terror. The NWFP losses would not be less than $25 billion. This is very strange that President Zardari and his team could not highlight the plight of Pakistanis before the US leadership.