ISLAMABAD, May 20: Senior US officials on Saturday announced the end of the “era of sanctions” against Pakistan and beginning of “a strategic partnership” as part of which the country would get more than $1.5 billion in development assistance over the next five years.

“The era of sanctions is over,” said US ambassador Ryan C. Crocker in response to a question directed at the visiting ambassador Randall L. Tobias, US director of foreign assistance and administrator of United States Agency for International Development (USAID), during a chat with senior journalists here on Saturday.

The question had referred to exemptions given to Pakistan from two sanctions conditional to movement towards democracy and nuclear good behavior and inquired if there was a possibility of re-imposition of these sanctions in case Islamabad failed to meet these conditions.

Ambassador Tobias said in his remarks that the US was providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth.

In addition, he said, the US has pledged a total of $510 million in earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts to assist the people and support the government’s relief and reconstruction effort. The US is also providing assistance for special programs like the anti-narcotics campaign.

Mr Tobias said the US had entered into a long-term commitment with Pakistan and that there were a number of dimensions to this relationship.

Mr Crocker intervening once again said that relations between Pakistan and the US were being broadened, strengthened and deepened, “they are being institutionalised. We are into strategic partnership. We have initiated strategic dialogue on a number of subjects.”

When asked if the US assistance would be available to countries that did not pursue free market economy as diligently as Washington would like them to, Ambassador Tobias said that the idea behind US assistance to needy countries was to help them to become part of global system of peace, freedom, democracy and to assist them to take on their own responsibilities for education, healthcare and their economic development.

“We see foreign assistance not only the right thing to do but also in the best interest of American people and global peace, that is the long-term vision of aid. It is not just for dealing with terrorism, it also for dealing with the root causes of terrorism, which is hopelessness,” he added.

Ambassador Tobias, who is on a two day visit to Pakistan, said that he had come to Pakistan to meet all those involved on the side of the donor as well as the recipient including the NGOs engaged in aid work on behalf of USAID, “ and to see how things are moving and to find out if there are any bottlenecks including with regard to rates of disbursement and absorption of assistance.”

Mr Tobias sounded impressed by President Pervez Musharraf’s ambitious plans for economic growth, reaching communities under-served by progress and for education, health and other social sectors. He said he was also impressed by the complete unanimity of views between the president and the federal education minister on how best to tackle Pakistan’s education problems.

“The Agency is not involved in any way in the process of changing the school curriculum,” said Jonathan Addleton, mission director of USAID Pakistan while taking a question on behalf of ambassador Tobias which had referred to the negative domestic reaction to the perceived USAID efforts to influence the process.