Envoy says US govt will continue to deliver assistance through a variety of long-standing vectors as required by American law to ensure transparency, accountability
ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson rejected on Wednesday the impression that the US would not provide direct funding to Pakistani for lack of trust in the government.
"The US government will continue to deliver assistance to Pakistan through a variety of long-standing vectors as required by American law, to ensure transparency and accountability … [the US] is not depriving the Pakistani government of any degree of direct funding as a result of a lack of confidence or trust," said Patterson while commenting on a September 13 news report headlined ‘US says no direct money to PPP government’.
"All over the world, the US delivers aid through a variety of mechanisms, which can include a degree of budgetary support. In Pakistan’s case, this direct support will be included as part of the package through various delivery vehicles. We have provided more than $3 billion in combined security, economic and development assistance since President [Asif Ali] Zardari’s election," said Patterson.
The ambassador said some of the anticipated non-military aid under the Kerry-Lugar legislation would be, in fact, directly transferred to the government, and the remainder channelled through qualifying government institutions, private sector firms and Pakistani and international NGOs.
"There’s huge internal capacity to develop Pakistan, and we want to tap into it. Using a deliberate qualifying process, we will stream more funding through national, provincial and local institutions, and build their capacity to work with us in the future," she said.
Patterson said partisan politics was not a factor in the debate on US assistance to Pakistan. "We are a friend of Pakistan, and we support the government elected by the Pakistani people."