The US, since 2001, has deposited more than $5 billion in reimbursements into the Pakistani government’s general budget account, the largest single portion of some $10 billion in aid to Islamabad in that time. Also included in that larger amount is $1.9 billion in security assistance, which Pakistan has used to buy new radios for troops, night-vision goggles and refurbished Cobra attack helicopters.
Pakistani officials say the Coalition Support Funds money goes into the national treasury to repay the government for money already spent on 100,000 troops deployed in the tribal areas. But American military officials say the funds do not reach the men who need it. That is especially the case for helicopter maintenance and poorly equipped Frontier Corps units.
During a recent visit to the border, an American official found members of the Frontier Corps “standing there in the snow in sandals,” according to the official. Several were wearing World War I-era pitch helmets and carrying barely functional Kalashnikov rifles with just 10 rounds of ammunition apiece. “It is not making its way, for certain, we know, to the broader part of the armed forces which is carrying out the brunt of their operations on the border,” the senior American military official said.
Members of Congress also express growing frustration with the Coalition Support Funds programme.
“The situation in the tribal areas seems to be getting worse not better, and that’s despite a billion dollars in aid,” said Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island democrat on the armed services committee who visited Pakistan in fall 2006. “Just pouring the money in and asking them to do this is not producing the results that we need.”
The most glaring example of the Coalition Support Funds programme’s failure is helicopter maintenance, according to both Pakistani and American officials. In an interview with The New York Times last month, Musharraf complained specifically that a lack of American spare parts and assistance had handicapped the Pakistani fleet. “Ten days back, of 20 Cobra helicopters, we have only one that was serviceable,” he said. “We need more support.”
In interviews, American military officials scoffed at the statement. They said the US had provided $8 million worth of Cobra parts in the past six months, and would provide $4 million-$6 million in parts next year. In addition, Washington reimbursed Pakistan $55 million for helicopter operation and maintenance costs for an eight-month period in 2007, American officials said.
The US later found out that the army received only $25 million from the Pakistani government for operations and maintenance of their entire national helicopter fleet for the whole of 2007. American officials said they suspect that Pakistan has been overcharging for helicopter maintenance. Yet at the same time, maintenance of Pakistani helicopters is not being performed.