ISLAMABAD, May 30: Pakistan plans to seek $8 to 10 billion from the United States as further compensation for the losses it suffered for cooperating with coalition forces during the US-led assault on Afghanistan.
A government official told Dawn that the ministry of finance was preparing estimates of losses suffered under various counts, including exports, investment climate and other related heads.
The official said the exercise was started after the US Central Command estimated that Pakistan suffered a cost of around $10 billion during ‘Operation Enduring Freedom.’
He, however, said a final decision would be made by the president in consultation with the prime minister. If the decision is in favour of asking for more compensation, the president will take up the issue with the US administration during his visit to Washington next month, the government official said.
Sources said the US had been reasonable with Pakistan in settling compensation issues and had met “most of the demands” Islamabad had put forth earlier. Now that the US has itself calculated that losses to Pakistan’s economy have been higher than Islamabad’s estimates of $2-3 billion, further compensation could be worked out, they added.
Pakistan is already expecting the US administration to finalize a $1.2 billion economic package during President Gen Musharraf’s visit.
Islamabad has been asking the US administration to write off its remaining $1.8 billion bilateral debt. The issue was raised with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage during his visit to Islamabad earlier this month.
The issue was also discussed by the ministry of finance at the official level and the US authorities are reported to have indicated waiving around $1 billion from Pakistan’s bilateral debt.
According to latest official data, Pakistan’s total external debt and liabilities have dropped from $37.9 billion in June 2000 to $35.58 billion by end March 2003. The $1 billion debt written off the US last year has now been excluded from the debt portfolio.
The public debt and publicly guaranteed debt including Paris Club, multilateral and bilateral debt and liabilities have, however increased from $27.86 billion in June 2000 to $29.381 billion by end March 2003. The IMF debt has also increased from $1.55 billion in June 2000 to $2.07 billion in end March 2003.
However, the private non-guaranteed debt has declined from $2.84 billion in June 2000 to $2.03 billion in March this year. The total external debt has, thus, increased from $32.254 billion in June 2000 to $33.479 billion in March this year.
Foreign exchange liabilities (foreign currency accounts) have come down from $5.66 billion in June 2000 to $2.1 billion in March 2003.
