Pakistan a "black hole" for US funds : Report

Washington, Oct.6 (ANI): Despite the US providing huge amounts of funds to Pakistan to enable it fight the menace of terrorism, Islamabad has failed to ensure that the monetary assistance is utilized exactly for the purpose it is meant for.

A large portion of international aid has been misutilised by Pakistan, and the assistance meant for enabling the country's security forces to fight against the extremists vanishes into a proverbial 'black hole', a report in the Boston Globe said.

Pakistan has barely used the US assistance for the purpose it is meant for. It is estimated that between 2002 and 2008, only 500 million of the 6.6 billion dollars in military aid meant to help Pakistan fight militants was actually spent on its intended purpose. This clearly shows that Islamabad is playing a 'shell game' with US aid, the report said.

Experts have raised concerns over Pakistan's sincerity in acting against the terror threat emanating from its own soil and the misuse of US aid.

Azeem Ibrahim, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, in his report, has underlined how the US has been undermining the prevalent massive corruption in Pakistan, describing the troubled country as a 'black hole' for US funds.

"Pakistan is a 'black hole' for US funds, where individuals are getting richer while Pakistani frontier soldiers have been seen standing in the snow in sandals, wearing World War I-era pith helmets, and using barely functional rifles," Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim pointed out that the Pakistani military received 80 million dollars a month even during cease-fires 'when troops were in their barracks.'

The report stressed that the Obama Administration should refrain from releasing more funds for Pakistan until it adopts a more serious approach against the extremists and make use of effective accountability tools to check the misuse of assistance being offered.

"Pakistan should get no more money until it becomes serious about accounting for the aid it receives. All Pakistan has done so far is toy around with our tools," the report stated. (ANI)