US ambassador Cameron Munter held an important meeting with the ambassadors of member countries of the European Union to review the status of pledges which were made at Tokyo Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) conference, held in April 2009.
However, there are lots of questions that have been raised about the agenda of the meeting given that the participants included Nato countries with which Pakistan is currently renegotiating the terms and conditions of engagement subsequent to the cessation of relations after the Salalah incident that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Spokesman for US Embassy confirmed that a meeting took place in German Embassy in Islamabad late Friday, adding that the purpose of the meeting was to review the pledges and discuss the need to call a ministerial meeting of the Friends.
Diplomatic sources said that in the third ministerial meeting of the FoDP held in October 2010 in Brussels, it was decided that the next FoDP meeting would be held on need basis.
According to data available, Pakistan received Rs 109 billion so far out of approximately $6.1 billion pledged by a group of 17 states and multilateral donors with around $2.9 billion or 47.6 per cent expected to come from commitments made in the past. Diplomatic sources said among several reasons for slow disbursement one was delay by the government of Pakistan to identify the development projects.
The government has budgeted Rs 13.9 billion external loan in current financial year to finance development schemes under Tokyo pledges. In addition, a grant of Rs 3.6 billion is likely to materialise in the current fiscal year. In 2010-11 Pakistan government budgeted Rs 55.3 billion for development expenditure from Tokyo pledges but only Rs 10 billion materialised. The size of grants was also limited to Rs 3.5 billion against Rs 26.7 billion expectation.
According to Economic Affairs Division, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been the major foreign assistance provider to Pakistan by releasing $470 million while $1.6 billion external support has been received by the country from July 2011 to March 2012. The government of Pakistan hasn't set up a FoDP secretariat in Islamabad as yet as pledged in the Tokyo conference, sources added.