WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s outlandish tweet bragging about $33billion aid to Pakistan over a span of 15 years seems to be falling on astony ground as the statistics about the much-hyped assistance give adifferent picture.
Though the tycoon-turned-president insinuated that Pakistan responded withlies and deceit in response to the $33 billion that the US had given it,however, the official data available confirms that the $33 billion figureseems exaggerated and deeply flawed.
According to the USAID (The United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment), America handed over $14.788 billion in civilian & militaryaid to its South-Asian ally from 2001 till last year.
In 2017, the aid was approximately $473m by all the agencies in terms ofdisbursements.USAID figures about ‘disbursements’ to Pakistan in 2017
If we combine the aid (civilian & military) from 2001 to 2017, the figurecomes out to be $14.788 billion, instead of Trump’s claimed 33 billionDollars.
Pakistan, which is leading the war against terrorism as a neighbour ofwar-torn Afghanistan also received funds from US in terms of ‘CoalitionSupport Fund’ but technically this was not aid and was merelyreimbursement, for the money Pakistan had already spent.
The sum total of ‘reimbursements’ comes out to be $14.585 billion over aspan of 16 years starting from 2001, but the US has conditioned the paymentof complete amount till Pakistan takes action against the Haqqani networkand so a visible amount is still pending out of the total promised$14.585b.
According to Security Assistance Monitor, which analyzes U.S. securitysector assistance programs worldwide, Pakistan received not a single pennyin the fiscal year 2017 in terms of security aid that it deserved tocollect under the banner of ‘Coalition Support Fund (CSF)’.Successive payments under Coalition Support Fund program
If we delve into the details regarding the CSF payments, it comes out thatever since the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz assumed power in 2013, the USadministration changed its mind and the reimbursement plummeted over theyears though the demand for ‘do more’ against terrorism rose to a crescendo.
The maximum amount reimbursed in a single year to Islamabad was back in2010 when the then Obama administration released $1,499,000,000 ($1.4b) toPakistan.
Interestingly, in 2011, when the US launched Operation Neptune Spear totrack Osama Bin Laden, it reimbursed $1,118,000,000 ($1.11b), an amountfalling short of what Pakistan received in the previous year.
The zero payment to Pakistan by US in CSF for 2017 was also confirmed by adocument link> Prepared by theCongressional Research Service for distribution to multiple congressionaloffices in November 2017.
So, technically, Pakistan did not receive 33 billion US Dollars as braggedby the 45th head of the America Donald Trump in his first day tweets of2018.
Though Pakistan has to officially give a rejoinder to US accusations, eventhen the figures quoted above seem enough for US policymakers to revisetheir harsh attitude towards Pakistan that has rendered matchlesssacrifices in the war against terror, a proof of which is martyrdom ofcivilian and armed troops besides over 132 children that were brutallymassacred in Army Public School attack in 2014.