Asif Ali Zardari Urges Marshall Plan-like Aid Drive
Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 2:00 pm
TOKYO: Pakistan’s president called Thursday for a major aid drive like the Marshall Plan to fight poverty and militancy in his country, writing in a newspaper on the eve of a major meeting of donors.
Asif Ali Zardari was in Tokyo for the aid conference, hosted by the World Bank and Japan, which is expected Friday to raise up to $6 billion to help stabilize what is seen as a front-line state in the battle against extremism.
Zardari stressed in a Japan Times article that his government was determined to fight militants but said it needed an aid and reconstruction program similar to the US Marshall Plan for post-World War II Europe.
“We are determined to fight militancy to the end and will never permit the extremists to dictate their agenda on the people through guns and bullets,” he wrote in the English-language daily.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks – which led the U.S. to invade Afghanistan and make Pakistan its regional strategic ally – Islamabad has spent about $35 billion to fight extremists, Zardari wrote.
“Pakistan alone cannot bear the huge social and economic burden of this war,” the president wrote. “Clearly we need massive international assistance.
“Pakistan needs a sort of Marshall Plan to address the issues raised in the fight against militancy. This is critical because regional peace and security, and by implication international peace, depends on how well we defeat the militants.”
The article was published a day after a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives at a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing 18 police and civilians.
Pakistan security troops are frequent targets for extremist militants who oppose the government’s U.S. alliance and more than 1,500 government forces have been killed by insurgents since 2002.
Zardari wrote that “for historical reasons, particularly after the tragic events of 9/11, some areas of Pakistan’s tribal regions have been catapulted into the throes of militancy and terrorism.”
“But the problem is not of Pakistan alone. It is a regional issue that needs to be addressed at the regional level.”
Zardari said Pakistan would present a nine-point plan to donors that covers fiscal stability, poverty alleviation, agriculture, industry and trade, training, energy, public-private partnerships, money markets and administrative reforms.
Economists say up to 40% of Pakistan’s 160 million people live on $1 a day or less.
The World Bank on Monday said it expected loan and grant aid pledges of $4 billion to $6 billion when 27 countries and 16 organizations attend the one-day conference and a “Friends of Pakistan” meeting.
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