US conditions Pak aid to performance: US paper

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US conditions Pak aid to performance: US paper

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The classified system signals a shift by US toward a pay-for-performance relationship with Pakistan.

15 August,2011 11:16 am

The White House has started conditioning the award of billions of dollars in security assistance to Pakistan on whether Islamabad shows progress on a secret scorecard of US objectives to combat al Qaeda and its militant allies. The US also is asking Pakistan to take specific steps to ease bilateral tensions.The classified system, put in place after the US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his Pakistani hideout, signals a shift by the White House toward a pay-for-performance relationship with Pakistan, as doubts grow that the two countries can for now forge a broader alliance based on shared interests.Since 2001, the US has lurched from one policy to another in an attempt to win Pakistans help in fighting al Qaeda and its allies, only to find itself frustrated by what the US. sees as Islamabads double-game in accepting American aid—more than $20 billion since the 9/11 attacks—while still providing clandestine support to some of Americas enemies.US aid to Pakistan, including economic and security-related assistance, totaled nearly $4.5 billion in fiscal 2010. Security aid accounted for more than $2.7 billion of that, according to the Congressional Research Service.Officials say the White House has already frozen some $800 million in security assistance to Pakistan in recent months because of factors that include Islamabads refusal to readmit American trainers and military personnel who process Pakistani reimbursement claims—items that fall into categories on the US performance checklist.US officials say the Obama administration presented the request list to Pakistani officials in May, shortly after the bin Laden raid. The raid, carried out without Pakistani knowledge, had already fueled Pakistani concerns that the US doesnt consider Islamabad an equal partner.A spokesman for Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency denied the US had formally presented Pakistan with such a list and said it was Pakistans prerogative to decide how to combat terrorism and conduct relations with Afghanistan.