Pakistan seeks $600m in emergency funds

Pakistan’s prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani will seek at least US$600m in emergency funds from donors on Thursday to fund up to 2m internally displaced people from the embattled Swat valley – described by UN officials as one of the word’s worst refugee crises.

On Tuesday, the US government said it would provide US$110m in emergency aid in a move which President Barack Obama hoped would demonstrate his country’s support for Pakistan in its fight against extremists.
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Western diplomats warned that many Pakistanis who are already sceptical of support to the western world, notably the US, would intensify their opposition to future military offensives if the humanitarian crisis intensified.

Shaukat Tarin, the de facto Finance Minister told the Financial Times that they were looking for between US$600m to US$1bn in emergency relief funds.

Mr Tarin said the funds sought were only the first instalment in meeting the costs of the conflict in the Swat valley where government forces are fighting Taliban militants to thwart their creeping incursion into Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands have fled the region in recent weeks sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a respected Pakistan commentator on political and security affairs said he believed the military operation had almost succeeded in Swat in either driving out or killing up to four thousand ‘Taliban’ militants. Up to 1,000 Taliban militants have been killed in the past week alone, according to government statistics.

However, Mr Rizvi warned, that a failure by donors to help to fund the engagement and also the relief operation would fuel domestic opposition to future such military action.

Mr Tarin said a meeting of the Friends of Pakistan - an international grouping of the country’s largest donors - will take place in Turkey later this year where Pakistan will formally seek support to fund annual security costs of about US$2.5b-US$3b. The Turkey meeting will follow last month’s meeting of the Friends group in Tokyo in which US$5.5bn were pledged in economic support to Pakistan.

“As far as the security is concerned, we have already said that this war on terror is now costing our economy US$8.5bn a year in terms of lost exports, lost investments, increased expenses and loss in revenue,” he said. “I believe direct annual cost of the security apparatus is about US$2.5b-US$3b in the next two years. This is for trying to raise another force and to give them equipment”.

A western diplomat said, it was important for the global community “to keep on encouraging Pakistan and keep on nudging it in the right direction by giving enough support for the refugees”.