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US freezes $1 billion in security aid to Pakistan over no ‘decisive action’ against terrorist groups
President Donald Trump had on New Year Day castigated Pakistan for receiving $33 billion aid from the US and helping terrorists in return.
The US said on Thursday it was suspending at least $1.15 billion security-related assistance to Pakistan until it showed tangible evidence of decisive action in combating terrorists, chiefly the Haqqani network, operating from its soil.
The United States did not specify the actions Pakistan is required to undertake to earn back the assistance, which is mostly extended to enable Islamabad to bolster its counterterrorism capability with, if needed, military hardware purchases from the US with its funding.
The specific assistance impacted, according to the US state department, are foreign military financing (FMF), which provides Pakistan with a credit line for purchases from the US, and coalition support funds (CSF), a reimbursement for supporting coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Some estimates put the total amount at $1.15 billion. The funds earmarked for reimbursements under CSF are $900 million for the budgetary year 2017 and $700 million for 2018 as authorised by Congress and they stand suspended. It also covers $255 million in FMF, which has been suspended already.
The state department, however, declined to say exactly how much aid would be suspended.
“We are still working through some of those dollar numbers right now,” state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.
However, the economic assistance, which has been worth $11 billion, of the total $33 billion since 2002, will continue, unaffected.
“This decision reflects the President’s conclusion that Pakistan has not taken the necessary decisive action, as requested by the United States and as promised by Pakistan’s leaders, against terrorist and militant groups in the region,” said the talking points memo.
The administration has stressed the suspension is “not a permanent cut-off at this time” and assistance funding and pending deliveries “will be frozen but not cancelled, as we continue to hope Pakistan will take the decisive action against terrorist and militant groups that we seek”.
But it warned, “We do not intend to reprogram any funds at this time.” Pakistan will not, thus, have an alternate route to access as it has in the past, occasionally.
There will be exceptions to the freeze, such as those mandated by law and those already in the pipeline. They will be processed, officials said, on a case-by-case basis.
Critics of the suspensions wondered if it had really been thought through. “This is nothingburger (lame, dud),” said one of them on condition of anonymity. “Why does it not include, for instance, other security-related assistance heads such as IMET — International Military Education and Training — which is worth $5 million annually?”
Another critic said he suspected Trump’s New Year day tweet — “which may have been a huge hit in India” — actually interrupted a revaluation of financial assistance to Pakistan that has been on for a while, cutting across administrations.
“The folks in the administration had to come up with something to follow up the president’s tweet. And this is the best they could come up with, in a hurry and the administration didn’t have a dollar number for such a major announcement,” the critic said.
