ISLAMABAD, June 24: The opposition parties have described the $3 billion package announced by President Bush after his meeting with Gen Musharraf at Camp David as “dismal and disappointing”.
Talking to Dawn, central leader of the Muttehidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Liaquat Baloch, PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar and PML-N’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said this grant would have no impact on the country’s already wobbly economy.
Mr Baloch said the nation should be informed which US demands Gen Musharraf had accepted in return for this dole. He said Gen Musharraf had rendered great service to the US by supporting its “operations to kill Muslims,” but he got only “disgrace” in return.
The MMA leader said the nation was under a burden of $38 billion debt, and this grant would bring no change in the lives of Pakistanis.
He said Gen Musharraf would have to hold talks with the opposition parties after his return from the US.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the package was far too short of what could have been achieved given the losses incurred in economic, political and social sectors by Pakistan because of its support to the international community in the fight against terrorism.
The package is very small compared with what the US Centcom itself admitted on its official website recently that Pakistan had suffered a 10 billion dollars loss as a result of its offering its land and air facilities and other logistic support in fight against terrorism.
Another dictator Gen Zia got 4.2 billion dollars of aid and 40 F-16s from the US in return for offering the country as a frontline state and to fight the proxy war in Afghanistan in 1980s, he added. He said during Benazir Bhutto’s first government Pakistan got 4.6 billion dollars and 60 F-16s from the US even while Pakistan did not have to pay the price of a frontline state. The PPP senator said Gen Musharraf had miserably failed to capitalize on the fallout of Sept 11.
PML-N’s acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi also termed the package disappointing one.
He said Pakistan had suffered a huge loss during the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, and this package was only a peanut.