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| February 3, 2006 | Friday | Muharram 4, 1427 |
Pakistan spending $3.4m on Afghan refugees: official
LONDON, Feb 2: Pakistan is spending $3.4 million on 2.6 million Afghan refugees living on its soil, said Additional Secretary UN and Economic Coordination in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tariq Osman Hyder.
The international community through UNHCR contributes $12 million, while the rest of the amount is met through Pakistan’s national budget. Osman made these remarks during the second day of the international conference on Afghanistan while giving details of Pakistan’s role in the development and reconstruction of Afghanistan, said a press release issued by Pakistan High Commission. The conference ended here on Wednesday.
He lauded Afghanistan’s contribution to provide relief to victims of earthquake despite its economic constraints.
He highlighted the high priority Pakistan assigns to the stability and economic development of Afghanistan. Pakistan has now pledged a total of $250 million, of which $50 million were pledged during this conference. Out of these grants, $52.8 million had already been utilised for projects in the infrastructure, health, education and transport sectors. The major portion of $22.6 million was on communications and for rehabilitation of the Torkham-Jalalabad road. Cash assistance of $10 million has also been provided, along with relief items worth $ 10.7 million — $2.85 for the education sector, $1.32 million for the health sector and $0.5 million for capacity building of Afghan institutions. 100 buses had also been provided for assisting inter-city communications, it said.
Pakistan is planning to spend around $40 million each on the health and communications sectors and $ 20 million on educational projects. The total amount approved so far for the projects in the pipeline is around $104 million.
He said that Pakistan was helping in providing training to enhance Afghanistan’s capacity, with special courses for Afghan diplomats and police.
Regarding regional linkages, Mr Haider outlined the advantages which would accrue from Gwadar Port as another transit point for Afghanistan’s maritime commerce and for trade coming through Afghanistan from Central Asia, it said.
He highlighted importance of the Turkminstan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project which was being supported by the ADB. This project would not only contribute to regional energy security but also to Afghanistan’s economic development in providing construction jobs and a steady transit revenue stream. It could be paralleled with an oil pipeline from the Central Asia as well.
In the concluding session the Afghan Finance Minister urged the donor community to provide assistance directly to the Afghan Government or to its programmes rather than through NGOs. Pakistan’s representative supported the Afghan request and noted that while many donors preferred to use NGOs on the grounds of better delivery, the fact of the matter was that NGOs could not give overall national cover in areas such as health and education, in which all governments had responsibility. The Afghan delegation appreciated this support from Pakistan, the news release said.—APP
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