International Aid

It'll Cost More Than $5 Billion
To Save Pakistan

Aid For Pakistan Tops $5 Billion

The aid pledged at a Tokyo meeting to help save Pakistan from the Taliban is only the start, cautions President Obama's special representative, Richard Holbrooke.

The $5 billion in aid pledges collected by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at a donors' conference in Tokyo Friday was $1 billion more than the U.S. had expected. Nuclear-armed Pakistan, however, may need much more to buttress it against the instability wrought by the Taliban and other terrorist groups operating in its lawless Northwestern frontier, warned Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Charged with winning back hearts and minds from extremist groups, Holbrooke says, "$5 billion is not enough." Half of Pakistan's 175 million people live on $2 dollars or less a day, and its financial capital, Karachi, gets by on a few hours of electricity a day, he explained at a press conference in Tokyo Saturday before heading back to Washington. Holbrooke declined to put a price tag on saving Pakistan from the militants, but noted he has seen estimates as high as $50 billion.

America has given almost $20 billion to Pakistan since 2001, more than half of which went straight to the military as reimbursement for counterterrorism expenses. About a third has gone to the central government, but very little has made it out. Sometimes, the government funnels its third into weapons platforms for use against India, instead of economic infrastructure or social spending. Washington marks only 10% of aid to Pakistan for development goals like education.

One has no idea where it goes, we need to target it more to [economic] development and make sure there's a coherent distribution system in place. But if we get too pushy, it's more than what Pakistan, as a sovereign power would allow.

The best way to stabilize Pakistan would be to cultivate US trade with themand promote their trade with India. Trade—such as through easier access of textile exports to the U.S.—would bring capital into Pakistan outside the corrupt channels of government.

By opening Pakistani society to influences from abroad, trade will slowly decrease the power of the hawks in Pakistan. At the same time, to maintain and maximize gains from trade, civilian leaders will be forced to address the country's internal fiscal and judicial problems, to get Pakistan's house in order before trade can be sustainable.

The key error, is in interpreting terrorism as a symptom of a closed society, when it's in fact a direct response to, and rejection of, globalization. Pakistan is already a capable exporter, an exporter of violence.