Pakistan failed on Tuesday to secure swift aid from donors to help the cash-strapped country improve security and rebuild the north-west after an army offensive against the Taliban displaced millions of people. Donor countries pledged some $5.7 billion in aid to Pakistan in Tokyo in April 2009 but only a fraction has yet arrived, with some donors wanting more details of where the money will go.
"Pakistan has urged its friends to expedite (aid) pledges made to Pakistan," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference at the end of the "Friends of Pakistan" conference at an Ottoman palace in Istanbul. But he said his country's presentation of a series of measures aimed at building infrastructure, improving security and reducing poverty in the north-west won praise.
"The Pakistanis are more realistic now, they clearly see they need to present concrete plans if they are to receive at a quicker pace," said a Western diplomat, who declined to be named. "This was a good step in the right direction."
The funds are a response to a humanitarian crisis created by fighting between government forces and Taliban fighters in NWFP. Around 2.3 million people were forced to leave their homes after a government offensive against the Taliban. The majority of displaced people have since returned home but need help.
Delegates from 20 countries, including US President Barack Obama's special envoy Richard Holbrooke, and leading non-government organisations attended a two-day meeting to discuss Pakistani efforts to improve stability in the cash-strapped country, key to security in the region.
Qureshi said donor countries had also agreed to the projects presented by Pakistan to improve stability. Pakistan has so far received $300 million for internally dislocated people, Qureshi told Reuters in an interview. "We need to win the hearts and minds of people and to do that we have to not only protect them but create opportunities for starting a new life and for that we need resources," he said as he argued for a quicker delivery of aid.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who co-chaired the meeting with Qureshi, said a project to address security, the rule of law, investments in infrastructure and public service in Malakand and Swat Valley regions were impressive.
"Hopefully we will be able to replicate this model in other areas of Pakistan," Qureshi said. Qureshi said security was steadily improving in Pakistan, and the recent movement of troops towards the Afghan border away from the India border was proof of this, diplomats said. "In my view in the last couple of months the security situation has improved considerably and in the coming few months will improve further," Qureshi said. "The Taliban are on the run. The second and third-tier leadership has been eliminated."
Qureshi said the successful army offensive against the Taliban in Swat as well as the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had created confidence in the Pakistani people.
Diplomats told Reuters that Pakistan had made significant headway in dealing with an insurgency but they remained concerned that Pakistan would slow down its efforts now and a promised offensive against the Taliban in Waziristan would be a good indication of their intentions.
Earlier, the forum that opened in Turkey on Tuesday sought to boost aid and investment in Pakistan as a way to support its democratic institutions and curb violence there. The meeting of the "Friends of Democratic Pakistan" group followed fighting between the Pakistani government and the Taliban that forced more than 2 million people to flee earlier this year.
"The recent situation regarding the internally displaced persons affects millions of people awaiting urgent relief" in Pakistan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the conference in an Ottoman palace on the shores of the Bosporus strait. "The challenges posed by extremism and terrorism, by their nature, have ramifications across borders,' he said.
In Istanbul, Pakistan was pitching projects in energy, institution-building and other areas, and seeking help from the private and state sectors of nations in the "Friends" group. One topic of discussion was a reconstruction project that seeks to help displaced people in Malakand.
Pakistan urged the release of billions of dollars of promised international aid for development projects as it argued that economic prosperity was the best way to counter extremism. Speaking at an international gathering on ways to stabilise the nuclear-armed South Asian country, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that improving socio-economic development was key to addressing the security challenges Islamabad faces.
"Pakistan is determined to eliminate (extremism and terrorism) from its soil as they are alien to our ethos," Qureshi told a gathering of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan group. "A strong Pakistan on the path to development and prosperity is the strongest bulwark against all such retrograde forces."
The minister urged international donors to release aid totalling more than five billion dollars pledged at a conference in Tokyo in April, underlining that the need for resources to rehabilitate areas in north-west Pakistan where the army launched a massive operation against the Taliban in April.
"Pledges made at the Tokyo donors' meeting must be realised," he said. Some 2.3 million people were dislocated as a result of the military push in the districts of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir after militants advanced perilously close to the capital.