DAWN: WASHINGTON: A day after President Barack Obama dismissed the Pakistani government as incompetent, his administration informed Islamabad that they would give $1.5 billion of economic assistance to Pakistan in the next few days.
The money, to be deposited in the State Bank of Pakistan early this month, will include $500 million of emergency assistance and $1 billion of held-up reimbursements from the coalition support fund.
US officials also told the Pakistani government that a bill to triple US assistance will be moved in the US Senate on Monday. It will bring annual assistance of $1.5 billion for a period of five years.
But while the Pakistani diplomats were learning this good news from US officials, President Obama shared a candid and frank assessment of the current Pakistani rulers during a news conference on Wednesday night.
‘The civilian government there right now is very fragile and don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services: schools, healthcare, rule of law, a judicial system that works for the majority of the people,’ he said.
‘As a consequence, it is very difficult for them to gain the support and the loyalty of their people,’ he said, summarily dismissing the government’s claim to a popular mandate.
But what President Obama’s top general for Pakistan and Afghanistan told an American television channel was even more damning.
Fox News reported on Thursday that Commander US Central Command Gen David Petraeus has told US officials the next two weeks were ‘critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive.’
Fox News also reported that Gen. Petraeus and senior administration officials believed the Pakistan Army was ‘superior’ to the civilian government.
The two statements and private assurances of support to the Pakistani government have contributed to the confusion and uncertainty that already overshadow US-Pakistan relations. >>> By Anwar Iqbal | Saturday, April 2, 2009
