WASHINGTON, May 10: Experts have urged US lawmakers to ensure that American assistance to Pakistan is used for education and development if they want to defeat extremists in that country.

At a hearing on madressah reforms in the house subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, experts regretted that while Pakistan has received about $10 billion from the US since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, only a very small proportion of this amount has gone to education.

Craig Cohen of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that at present 3.4 per cent of the assistance that Pakistan receives from the US goes to education.

“Let’s become the country that provides opportunity for young Pakistanis, rather than the country that is at war with Islam, which is how we are perceived today,” he said.

“We can’t sacrifice our short-term security but our long-term security may depend on such a shift.”

Mr Cohen suggested that Congress take a harder look at how assistance is apportioned and seek greater accountability.

The subcommittee was told that according to the Pakistan government there were about 12,000 madressah in the country, while other estimates say the number could be as high as 20,000.

Congressman John Tierney, a Democrat who heads the subcommittee, said the US could help the Pakistani nation fight extremism by focusing its assistance on social reforms.

“The Pakistani people are treading water during a rising tide of extremism, a tide that threatens their society and their children’s futures, a tide that exposes our soldiers in Afghanistan to attack, and a tide that threatens us here at home to a gathering new generational wave of terror,” said Mr Tierney.

Christopher Kojm, a deputy director of the September 11 Commission, faulted both the Bush administration and Congress for inadequately funding education reforms.

“Our country needs a strategy for educational assistance that is part of our overall foreign policy strategy for this part of the world, and we need to fund it [but] we’re just not funding it at any level that is appreciable that can make a difference,” said Mr Kojm.

Mr Kojm regretted that the US was moving backwards on scholarship, library and education programmes, noting that security concerns have contributed to the closure of facilities, and limited access at certain overseas posts.