Pakistan Needs More Dev't than Military Aid
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Jun 17 (IPS) - U.S. aid to Pakistan needs to put far greater emphasis on education and far less on the military than it has to date, a Brussels conference has been told.
Data recently provided to the U.S. Congress indicates that of almost 11 billion U.S. dollars provided to Pakistan between 2002 and 2008, 8 billion dollars went to military aid. By contrast, only 100 million dollars was allocated to education during that period. Many analysts regard better education as one of the most pressing needs in Pakistan, a country where one-third of its 161 million inhabitants live in poverty.
"The sector that probably should have received the highest priority was way down the list," said Karl Inderfurth, who served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs between 1997 and 2001.
Just 2.3 percent of Pakistan's Gross Domestic Product is spent on education, the lowest level of any country in South Asia. Military spending, meanwhile, accounts for 3.5 percent of GDP. The result of inadequate funding for education is that only about half of Pakistani adults can read and write, compared to 92 percent in Sri Lanka and 60 percent in India.
Inderfurth said the U.S. policy of shoring up the presidency of Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been named by Washington as a valuable ally in its so-called war against terrorism, has damaged U.S. standing among Pakistan's population.
He cited research by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, a barometer of international opinion, which found that 69 percent of Pakistanis have an unfavourable view of the United States, while just 16 percent regard it favourably. "The fact of the matter is that the United States has been a major player (in Pakistan)," he added. "But right now, it is a bit radioactive in Pakistan. The United States is seen as being on the wrong side of democratic history. We're seen as having a Musharraf-only policy."
Inderfurth was speaking at a Jun. 16 conference in Brussels. Organised by the European Policy Centre think tank, the conference addressed relations between Pakistan and both the United States and Europe.
Khalid Mahmood, a former ambassador of Pakistan to Oman and Poland, said that Washington's approach to his country has been "based on short-term American interests". He, too, argued that "military cooperation has been a hallmark of U.S. policy towards Pakistan".
Although Pakistan has enjoyed robust economic growth in recent years, Mahmood described "underinvestment in education as one of the most alarming indicators" of the country's inequalities. A "predatory elite of less than one percent of the population has dominated the state" for decades, he added. This elite has only helped develop what he described as "a casino economy model".
"There has been a lot of development of the services sector and of high-class banking, not of microfinance for the poor," he said. "Education, health, domestic savings, exports, human resources and agriculture have been neglected."
Mahmood severely criticised recent U.S. air attacks on areas along the country's border with Afghanistan. Last week, 11 Pakistani soldiers were killed after U.S. forces opened fire on a border post. While the authorities in Islamabad denounced that attack as "cowardly", Washington has expressed anger at Pakistani efforts to negotiate with militants in order to end violence on its side of the border.
According to Mahmood, further air strikes could "create more instability on the border" and are unlikely to have any positive effect in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaeda leader is widely assumed to be hiding along the frontier, possibly on the Pakistani side.
Following elections that led to the formation of a new government in Pakistan earlier this year, Mahmood said it is vital that the European Union should increase its assistance to the country.
"Pakistan is at a turning point, and democracy is fragile," he said. "There is a lot in it for the EU. If Pakistan can be a success for democracy, then this will demonstrate to the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world and the 20 million Muslims in the EU that democracy works."
James Moran, a senior European Commission official dealing with relations with Asia, admitted that "Pakistan is a country that has not had as much attention here in Europe or indeed in Brussels as it should have had." But he noted that the bloc had tripled its aid to Pakistan in recent years.
Moran noted that the EU regarded the outcome of this year's election as a clear verdict in favour of democracy.
Yet, he said, some flaws in the political system meant that an EU mission which observed the poll was unable to categorise it as free and fair. Among the steps needed to redress these flaws, he argued, are the establishment of an independent judiciary, the appointment of an independent election commission, and steps to ensure that the counting of votes can be subject to greater scrutiny. (END/IPSAP/RDR/JS/06/08)
