LAHORE, May 22: Lahore American Consulate principal officer William Howe has said the United States Agency for International Development has committed $3 billion to Pakistan over the next five years.

He was speaking at the conclusion of a four-day trauma management course conducted by the surgery department of the Lahore General Hospital on Saturday.

He said the $3 billion aid would be given in yearly instalments of $600 million for various development programmes in the country.

Mr Howe said USAID was supporting different education and health-related development programmes in the Punjab. A US-based programme had been launched to improve Pakistani teachers' ability to teach mathematics, science and English as a second language. He said this programme also offered teachers an opportunity to live in a US community for four months.

In the health sector, he said, USAID had launched a national programme to extend reproductive health services and products to the under-served areas. Similarly, a programme to improve HIV/AIDS awareness was launched to help the youth in high-risk areas in Lahore and Multan.

Mr Howe said another national programme was launched to improve provincial and district health funding in the areas like lady health workers, reproductive health, malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, immunizations and nutrition.

Commenting on the photographs featuring US soldiers' use of torture against Iraqi people, he said top US officials had issued statements that six separate investigations were going on to fix responsibility. He quoted US army sources as saying that investigations would be completed in a month's time.

Earlier, Postgraduate Medical Institute/LGH principal Prof Dr Ali Ajwad Shah said management of emergency cases was of paramount importance. He said that financial aids for institutions were not as important as the high-tech training imparted to the available human resources.

The principal said the LGH would also have an emergency building extension within a couple of months.