Pakistan has not received any money from the U.S. for the last nine months for rendering its military services to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaida in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, media reports say.
Shaukat Tarin, the financial advisor to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said Thursday Pakistan's latest reimbursement bill of $1.35 billion for eliminating sanctuaries of Islamist insurgents conducting cross border raids on NATO forces in Afghanistan has been delayed.
Stating that no payment was received since May 2008, he said some accounting and procedural complications have delayed the release. He said after months of negotiations Washington has approved a payment of close to $1 billion, while the talks for the remainder were continuing.
"We have asked them to pay the bill as soon as possible," he said, adding that the bills should be paid from the Coalition Support Fund.
Tarin said Islamabad is projected to incur around $8 billion alone in the ongoing fiscal year, ending June 30. "Our investments have dried up and imports and exports affected," he said.
Pakistan joined the U.S.-led international fight against terrorism in 2001, and started to get $297 million annually under U.S. Foreign Military Grant since 2003 for flushing out militants from the region in the northwest of the country.
The U.S. has so far provided around $10 billion of aid for social development as well as in form of military aid. But the poverty-stricken country says it has suffered financial losses many times more than it has collectively received aid from its western allies, including U.S., after becoming front line state in the ongoing war against terrorism.
Pakistan, which recently avoided default by obtaining a $7.6- billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), relies solely on western aid to avoid an economic collapse.
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