Informed sources said that besides Kashmir and Afghanistan in the overall context, Pakistan would discuss with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday the additional financial burden in controlling the anti-US mobs in the country.
“Pakistan would definitely take up with the US Secretary of State its precarious economic conditions and the strain this (the US war on Afghanistan) is bringing on us in the shape of fall in exports, reduction in manufacturing and collection of revenues,” a senior government official told Dawn in a background briefing.
“There have been a lot of suffering for us. Our civil and police forces have constantly been on the move since Sept 11 to control these mobs and protests. This cost a lot of money. We don’t have fiscal space in the national budget to meet such expenditures,” said the official.
This would be the part of a composite dialogue Pakistani authorities would have with US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the official but did not quantify the expenditure Pakistan has made so far or the future estimates.
The official said that finance minister Shaukat Aziz who also had detailed meetings with US treasury officials in Washington had to cut his visit short in the same background.
Official sources said that provocative statements by the Indian leadership about Kashmir would also come under discussion.
Official sources said that Indians had assured Pakistan that from now on they would not issue provocative statements but “we want further guarantees” since Pakistan was a part of international move to fight terrorism.
These sources said that religious parties had been requested to remain away from the talks between the government and the US Secretary of State but law-enforcement agencies would also take adequate steps in that direction.
The government believes that strikes are not against the law and hence the people must be provided sufficient space as they have the right to express their ideas and beliefs but the country-wide strikes should remain peaceful, the sources said.
These sources said that Pakistan had also asked United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to create conditions within Afghanistan for the refugees to reduce their sufferings on long-term basis.
“We are making efforts to convince the UNHCR that whatever funds are coming for Afghan refugees from the donor countries, should be used to restore and rehabilitate water, communication, health and agricultural facilities within Afghanistan so that these people go back to Afghanistan rather than staying in Pakistan and Iran,” said the official.
The official said that Pakistan had repeated many times in public about another option that refugees should be kept closer but safer positions near the Pak-Afghan border.
Pakistan had to bear single-handedly the economic burden of over three million Afghan refugees for half a decade when all the donor countries and UN agencies stopped assistance in 1995 for Afghan refugees and ran away.
“Pakistan is a highly indebted country, it has to take loans to repay loans, its exports and revenues are on the decline and it has already given a lot of sacrifices in the Afghan crisis,” said the official.
“Pakistan has joined the international community against terrorism and the current situation is a global problem. Pakistan cannot bear it alone. All partners will have to share the burden instead of leaving Pakistan alone to bleed economically”, said the official.
