The US will cut the number of projects it funds in Pakistan by two-thirds as it seeks to focus its civilian assistance more tightly in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to US officials.A top US official told the Financial Times that the US would slim its civilian aid programme in Pakistan to target 50 projects, down from 160 projects.
Emphasis would be put on achieving maximum visibility to help counter strong anti-American sentiment across Pakistan, inflamed by what many see as an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty by the covert raid on the al-Qaeda leader.
"A slash of assistance is not on the cards, unless there is another big surprise like Bin Laden's whereabouts," said the US official.
"There is a lot of money in a lot of places. Aid is in a diffused state. We can say great things about what we are doing in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, but you don't see it."
US civilian assistance, boosted in 2009 by the authorisation of $7.5bn overfive years, is to be funnelled towards projects in high impact sectors such as energy, education, open democracy, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and job creation. It would be subject to more rigorous monitoring, and streamlined to assure quicker transfer of money to Pakistan.
The reshaping of the aid programme coincides with a greater role for Marc Grossman, Washington's envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He replaced the late Richard Holbrooke, whose expansive style led to a proliferation of aid programmes. "Holbrooke was a floodlight," said the US official explaining the different approaches of the two diplomats. "Grossman is a laser".The recalibration also comes as senior politicians in the US question the scale of assistance to Pakistan amid persistent doubts about its willingness and ability to combat Islamist militants striking targets within Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan's leaders, however, insist that it has suffered far greater casualties than Nato in a conflict that now threatens civil war in their own country. They claim to have lost 35,000 people to the fight in the past decade.
The US is seeking ways to recover from a severe loss of confidence in Pakistan this year. The relationship has suffered what US officials describe as double "crises" of the arrest of Raymond Davis, a Central Intelligence Agency operative, in Lahore and the discovery, and subsequent killing, of Bin Laden in a garrison city, 50km from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
The US's top priority is to rebuild its intelligence sharing with Pakistan. Thereafter, it is concentrating on improved military to military contacts and a more effective aid programme.
Some US analysts predict a radical reassessment of US aid flows to Pakistan, including tougher conditionality.
Richard Haass, the president of the Washington-based US Council on Foreign Relations, said more "scruple" would be attached to signing off money to Pakistan, as the US was "disappointed" by the level of co-operation it had received.
