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Civil govt complained US over secret army funding: WikiLeaks
KARACHI: In 2009, the civil government had complained to the US about being unaware of American funding provided directly to the Pakistan military, revealed by another unpublished American diplomatic cables.The secret cable disclosed tensions between the civilian government and the army over the funds provided for counterinsurgency operations.
In a meeting held with former US Ambassador Anne Patterson in November 2009, former finance minister Shaukat Tarin appealed to the ambassador to keep him informed of funds the US directs to the Pakistani military.
Tarin promised that he would not reduce the military’s budget based on the US assistance. He also provided numbers to prove that the vast majority of Coalition Support Funds (CSF) given to Gen Pervez Musharraf’s government, money provided as reimbursements for expenses incurred to support America’s efforts against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, had not been used for counterinsurgency purposes, or even for the military.
In an earlier meeting in September, the Ambassador said the USG had purchased $370 million equipment for the military through FY09 Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund (PCCF) supplemental funds. Tarin said he was unaware of this.
According to Tarin, the finance ministry had done a detailed analysis and concluded that, of the total of $6.6 billion the US had provided to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Fund, only $250 million had actually gone to the Pakistan Army during former president Musharraf government.
While previously published cables have revealed the US concerns about possibly inflated CSF claims by the army, a new cable reveals that the US also feared the civilian government that succeeded Musharraf would continue to use the CSF for budgetary support.
The civilian government, in turn, expressed mistrust about the army’s use of CSF funds. Therefore, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) asked the US to increase oversight and ensure that the military budget should be more transparent and subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
Courtesy www.geo.tv