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Unanswered questions on US aid plan for FATA

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The $750 million five-year US aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas is threatened by unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands, according to the US and Pakistani officials and analysts familiar with the plan.

A report published in The New York Times on December 25 states that the constant disputes have left many sceptical that the plan can succeed in competing for the allegiance of an estimated 400,000 young tribesmen in the restive tribal region.

“My sense is they are ready to start, but who is going to be responsible for management?” said Representative John Tierney, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is one of several members of Congress who have begun pushing the State Department for details of how the civilian aid will be monitored. They said they had not received satisfactory answers.

In fact, wary of corruption and hamstrung by local hostility, American officials say that, as in Iraq, they will rely heavily on private contractors to administer the development aid, a decision that could eat up as much as half the budget.

Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, where large numbers of US soldiers offer some protection to aid projects, the Pakistani authorities tightly control access to the Tribal Areas. They have ruled out using foreign nonprofit groups. The task to win over the people is quite difficult. The men, almost entirely Pashtun, have little in common with the rest of Pakistan. Their Pashtun brethren live in the southern part of Afghanistan.

According to the report, the US plan provides jobs, schooling, and roads.

However, concerns about corruption are so severe that the first grants will be held to only about $25,000 each, to finance small projects like repairing water wells and small sewage plants.

Because the US is viewed with such disfavour, it will not be identified on any of the aid, preventing any possible flow of good will. The aid will instead be presented as being Pakistani.

From their side, the American consultants often display a high degree of skepticism about the Pakistanis. A senior official for one of the contracting firms in Pakistan, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested that the contractors share a compound with the provincial governors.

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