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WASHINGTON: The United States should delay much of its multibillion-dollar package to Pakistan pending economic reforms as the aid has led to official inaction and public resentment, a study said Wednesday.
The report by the Center for Global Development, a private Washington think-tank, comes as more US lawmakers question aid to Pakistan after US forces discovered and killed Osama bin Laden near the country's top military academy.
The United States in 2009 authorized a $7.5 billion package named after Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar and Representative Howard Berman, who hoped to fight anti-Americanism in Pakistan by switching the US focus from backing the military to building the economy and civilian institutions . But the study, the result of research that began well before the bin Laden raid, said the aid drive had paradoxically soured public perceptions of the United States as it raised false hopes for better times.
And with Pakistani leaders now assuming a steady flow of cash from Washington, “it makes sense for them to push for that money rather than to work with their political rivals to move on key reforms,” it said.
“For these reasons, we recommend that much of the $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar- Berman aid package not be disbursed immediately,” it said.
“Especially in sectors where serious flaws in public administration are the binding constraints to success, it would be better to backload the bulk of this extraordinary aid investment, to wait until critical policy questions are resolved,” it said.
The study acknowledged that setting conditions to assistance was an “extremely sensitive subject.” Pakistan's powerful military raised objections in 2009 that the US aid package was violating its sovereignty.
But the report said that US assistance would be ineffective without reforms in areas such as education, energy and fiscal policy.
Pakistan is beset by inadequate power, water and schools to provide for a population that by 2030 is forecast to be the world's fourth largest, the report said.
“Pakistan must make a significant course correction if it is to join the ranks of India, Indonesia and other large Asian countries on a clear path of sustainable growth and transformation,” the report said.
