Islamabad, July 25 (Representative) The US has requested a budget of $101 million for Pakistan to “strengthen democracy, combat terrorism, and stabilise the country’s economy,” Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu told a congressional committee. Lu made the statement as he presented a written budget request for South and Central Asian Affairs to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday. He stated that Pakistan was facing “ongoing challenges and opportunities,” in light of which the requested funding would strengthen democracy, fight terrorism, and stabilise the economy by supporting economic reforms and debt management, Dawn reported. “The President’s Budget requests a straight-lining of our $101 million Pakistan budget,” Lu said. “That money would be used to strengthen democracy and civil society, to fight terrorism and violent extremism, and to support economic reforms and debt management to help stabilise Pakistan’s economy.” The United States has regularly urged Pakistan to respect democratic norms.
Last month, an overwhelming majority of the US House of Representatives passed a resolution expressing concern about Pakistan’s democracy and human rights situation.Islamabad reacted aggressively, dismissing the worries as “unjustified”. Similarly, Washington has repeatedly emphasised its “shared interest” with Islamabad in addressing the critical threat that terrorism poses to the entire region. The president’s budget, according to the budget request document, was seeking a total of $1.01 billion in foreign assistance for the South and Central Asia region to “compete with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), counter Russian and Chinese disinformation, and prevent terrorist groups from threatening US security.” The United States declared that it would shift extra resources to South Asia, and the president sought $585.7 million for the region, a 4.8 percent increase over the 2023–24 budget.During the session, Lu responded to a lawmaker’s question about Washington’s plan to balance China’s “strong and growing influence” in Pakistan, saying that US investments will outweigh Chinese ones.
“China is the past in terms of investment; we are the future,” Lu said. According to research published last year, Pakistan is the world’s third-largest receiver of Chinese development financing, with a portfolio worth $70.3 billion. According to the analysis, grants accounted for only 2 percent of China’s portfolio in Pakistan between 2000 and 2021, with the remainder in the form of loans. Last year, China extended $2.4 billion in loans to Pakistan during the latter’s two-year financial turmoil. Commenting on Pakistan’s economic relations with China, he said that the US was seeking to prevent Islamabad’s “further overreliance” on Beijing. China had repeatedly helped Pakistan to avert a default amid low foreign exchange reserves through debt rollovers, while Islamabad struggled to win over a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).