WASHINGTON: The US administration has sought a budget of $101 million for Pakistan to “strengthen democracy, fight terrorism, and stabilise the country’s economy”, US Assis­tant Secretary of State Donald Lu told a congressional panel in Washington on Tuesday.

Mr Lu’s statement came as he presented a written budget request for South and Central Asian Affairs to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

He said Pakistan was facing ongoing challenges and opportunities.

“The president’s budget requests a straight-lining of our $101 million Pakistan budget,” he said.

“That money would be used to strengthen democracy and civil society, to fight terrorism and violent extremism, and to support economic reforms and debt management to help stabilise Pakistan’s economy.”

Donald Lu says US will supersede Chinese investments; State Dept expresses concern over arrest of PTI leader

The president’s budget, according to the request document, was seeking a total of $1.01 billion in foreign assistance for the South and Central Asia region to “compete with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), counter Russian and Chinese disinformation, and prevent terrorist groups from threatening the US security”.

Of the total amount, the US annou­nced it would redirect additional res­ources to South Asia, and to that end, the president had requested $585.7m for the region, representing a 4.8pc increase over the 2023-24 budget.

Commenting on Pakistan’s economic relations with China, Mr Lu said the US was seeking to prevent Islamabad’s “further overreliance” on Beijing.

Responding to a lawmaker during the hearing regarding Washington’s plan to balance China’s “strong and growing influence” in Pakistan, Mr Lu said the US would supersede Chinese investments.

“China is the past in terms of inves­tment; we are the future,” he said.

Pakistan is the third biggest recipient of Chinese development finance worldwide with a portfolio of $70.3bn, a study revealed last year. Only 2 per cent of China’s portfolio between 2000 and 2021 consisted of grants while the rest was in the form of loans, it added.

Separately, State Department spo­kesperson Matthew Miller said the US was “always concerned” at the arrest of opposition leaders and urg­ed the peaceful upholding of constitutional and democratic principles, Dawn.com reported.

During a briefing in Washington on Tuesday night, the spokesperson was asked to comment on the Pakistani government’s decision to conduct a raid on the PTI secretariat in Islamabad, arrest party spokesperson Raoof Hasan and even trying to have the PTI banned.

Mr Miller said the US is “always concerned when we see arrests of opposition leaders”. “I’m always personally concerned when I see the arrest of a spokesperson,” he said, drawing a laughter from those in attendance due to him being a spokesperson himself.

He said the State Department “supports the upholding of constitutional and democratic principles, including the rule of law, equal justice under the law, and respect for human rights like freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly”.

The spokesperson was also asked about the Pakistan Army’s decision to snuff out what it calls is “digital terrorism”.

To this, Mr Miller said, “We support media freedom in Pakistan, just as we support it around the world.”

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2024