Concerned over reports that
Pakistan has been misusing funds meant for the war on terror
for armaments against India, a US Senate panel has asked
Defence Secretary Robert Gates to prepare his findings on the
issue, to be presented before it on March 4.
Gates, however, told the Senate Armed Services Committee
that Pakistan was using the funds appropriately and added that
though Islamabad has recently realised how "serious" the
al-Qaeda threat is, their military, which focussed on India
"all these years", will have to make changes in training and
equipping of their personnel to fight insurgents.
The issue of aid for Pakistan, including reimbursements
under the Coalition Support Funds, came up during a hearing of
the Senate panel on fiscal 2009 Pentagon budget.
"What do our friends in Delhi think is being done with
this money? Because there are also reports that they're
concerned that a lot of the money that we're giving that's
supposed to be going to Waziristan (tribal region) is just
simply being used to build up the military strength of the
Pakistan military on the border of India," Nebraska Democratic
Senator Ben Nelson asked.
"Based on the information that's available to me,
Senator, I think they are (using US funds appropriately). The
funds have been used to help support, I think, something like
90 Pakistani army operations, to help keep about 100,000
troops in the field in the northwest," Gates said.
"We have a process where the Pakistanis come to the (US)
embassy when they have an operation that they're going to
perform. The embassy has to validate that it is in support of
US military and security objectives," he said.
The operation is then reviewed by Central Command, which
not only further validates whether it is a legitimate military
operation, but also whether the cost is reasonable, Gates said
adding, "and then it's finally reviewed and approved."
The Chairman of the Committee, Carl Levin, has asked the
Secretary of Defence to prepare a report on the matter for
presentation by one of his top officials on March 4.
Gates was also asked if he agreed with an assessment of
the CIA Director that the government in Pakistan "finally" has
a new appreciation of the problem in the restive tribal areas.
"Yes, sir, I do... I think it's a fairly recent
development, and probably brought home most vividly to them
by the assassination of Mrs (Benazir) Bhutto, that this is a
serious threat."
The top Pentagon official noted that al-Qaeda has been
public about threatening the leadership of the Pakistani
military and the Pakistani government.
"They have declared their desire to overthrow the
Pakistani government. And I think that, plus the
insurrectionist activity that's going on up in the
northwestern part of the country, has really gotten the
Pakistani government's attention," Gates said.
"Pakistan has been focused for all these years on the
threat to their east, to the Indian conventional military
threat. And so my view is that the Pakistanis, just as they
recognise a new kind of threat to the stability of the
country, are going to have to make some changes in terms of
the training and equipping of their force," Gates said.