Concerned over reports that Pakistan has been misusing funds meant for the war on terror for armaments against India, a United States Senate panel has asked Defence Secretary Robert Gates to prepare his findings on the issue, to be presented before it on March 4.
Gates, however, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan was using the funds appropriately. He added that though Islamabad has only recently realised how serious the al-Qaeda threat is, their military, which focused on India all these years, will have to make changes in training and equipping of their personnel to fight insurgents.
The issue of aid for Pakistan, including reimbursements under the Coalition Support Funds, came up during a hearing of the Senate panel on the fiscal 2009 Pentagon budget.
"What do our friends in Delhi think is being done with this money? Because there are also reports that they're concerned that a lot of the money that we're giving, that's supposed to be going to Waziristan (tribal region), is just simply being used to build up the military strength of the Pakistan military on the border of India," Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson asked.
"Based on the information that's available to me, Senator, I think they are (using US funds appropriately). The funds have been used to help support, I think, something like 90 Pakistani army operations, to help keep about 100,000 troops in the field in the northwest," Gates said.
"We have a process where the Pakistanis come to the US embassy when they have an operation that they're going to perform. The embassy has to validate that it is in support of US military and security objectives," he said.
" The operation is then reviewed by the Central Command, which not only further validates whether it is a legitimate military operation, but also whether the cost is reasonable, and then it's finally reviewed and approved." Gates said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Carl Levin, has asked the Secretary of Defence to prepare a report on the matter and present it on March 4.
Gates was also asked if he agreed with an assessment of the Central Intelligence Agency Director that the government in Pakistan finally has a new appreciation of the problem in the restive tribal areas.
"Yes, sir, I do... I think it's a fairly recent development, and probably brought home most vividly to them by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, that this is a serious threat," said Gates.
The top Pentagon official noted that al-Qaeda has been public about threatening the leadership of the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government. "They have declared their desire to overthrow the Pakistani government. And I think that, plus the insurrectionist activity that's going on up in the north-western part of the country, has really gotten the Pakistani government's attention," Gates said.
"Pakistan has been focused for all these years on the threat to their east, to the Indian conventional military threat. And so my view is that the Pakistanis, just as they recognise a new kind of threat to the stability of the country, are going to have to make some changes in terms of the training and equipping of their force," he added.