Foreign aid to Pakistan

One of the biggest organizations supporting the electoral process in Pakistan is the Election Support Group (ESG). ESG is an internationally supported group of interested parties, made 32 specific recommendations to the Election Commission based on the recommendations of 16 international organizations.[2] A meeting was held in October 2009 to present these ideas to the commission. The Commission commissioned ESG to provide them with a recommendations on how to best solve the addressed problems.[3]

In 2006, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) implemented a 9 million dollar contract through USAID to install a computerised electoral rolls system for the Pakistani government.[6]

USAID, IFES, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) have also coordinated a number of initiatives to help train election officials in Pakistan. Part of this activity was the establishment of a Federal Election Academy and a library to support the Election Commission of Pakistan.[7]

Between 2002 and 2011, US Congress approved $18 billion in military and economic aid from the United States. However the Pakistan Treasury only received $8.647 billion in direct financial payments.

In 2007, Bush administration officials alleged that a significant portion of the military aid sent to Pakistan to counter Al Qaeda never made it to the front lines and was instead being used to counter India.[8] In 2008, U.S. officials claimed that nearly 70% (roughly $3.4 billion) of military aid was misspent between 2002 and 2007.[9] In 2008, some criticism surfaced after USAid revealed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that up to 30% of aid sent to Afghanistan and Pakistan were used on U.S. based contractors and consultants.[10]

The Kerry-Lugar Bill passed in 2009 after democratic elections occurred in Pakistan. This bill included $1.5 billion in annual assistance to Pakistan from 2009 through 2014 but required the Pakistani government to take certain steps to fight terrorism within the country in order to receive the funds.[11] In some of the years between 2009 and 2014, the U.S. congress did not allocate the full amount of $1.5 billion.[12]

In 2018, the Trump administration cut aid to Pakistan by approximately $300 million,[13] marks the cancellation of all US military aid to Pakistan.[14] Aid cuts continued into the Biden administration, with total civilian aid dropping to less than $200 million in 2022.[15]

The United States officials believe that channeling the aid through Pakistani agencies may lead to a more effective implementation of the foreign aid.[16] Officials further supported this idea as they believe that Pakistani civilian bureaucracies did not have the capacity to be effective aid implementing partners.[16] In addition to internal corruption, reports from Pakistan also suggest that large amounts of foreign aid were being used to fund its war against India and maintain a position of power against their rivals India.[16] As a result, reportedly nearly half of the aid given to Pakistan is being rendered unused due to corruption and the United States believes that altering its method of channeling the aid is the way to improve the implementation.

As a result of security concerns and inability of American aid workers to deliver the aid to certain regions in Pakistan, Pakistani institutions are responsible for a majority of the aid delivery to regions including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The areas needing the aid have residents that have anti-American sentiment and hence the delivery of any aid containing the American flag or label has led to several extremist attacks and reactions.[16] In 2012, aid organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross were forced to shut down operations in FATA regions of Pakistan after finding a British national employee had been beheaded as a result of negative perception to aid.[16] The idea that the residents in these areas "don't like America anymore"[16] poses great security risks for aid delivery for the United States and form a roadblock to the effective implementation of the aid in Pakistan. The need to outsource delivery to Pakistan leads to a lack of control and difficulty in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the aid and has been a leading cause of the ineffective implementation of U.S. aid.[16]

In total, the United States obligated nearly $78.3 billion to Pakistan between 1948 and 2016 (adjusted to 2016 value of dollar).[19][20]

Pakistan has been trying to negotiate free trade deals with the EU and America as part of Western assistance in war against terror instead of aid. This policy is supported by the Washington-based think tank Center for Global Development[23]

Pakistan has been trying to negotiate debt cancellation. Currently Pakistan spends $6 billion on debt servicing annually.