US to install monitor for aid to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The United States on Tuesday made it clear that it would put its own monitoring mechanism in place for entire American financial assistance to the government of Pakistan, official sources said.
According to the sources, visiting David Lipton, Senior Director for International Economics, National Security Council of USA, conveyed this condition to Pakistan during his meeting here with Adviser to PM on Finance, Shaukat Tarin. The sources privy to the meeting told TheNation that the US delegation asked Pakistan to make arrangements for placement of US economic inspectors here.
The sources further said that the Pakistan side requested the US delegation for brief relaxation in International Monetary Funds conditions mainly regarding subsidy withdrawal and prices increase.
It is pertinent to mention here that the IMF has delayed release of third tranche of the standby loan to Pakistan. The IMF, according to the sources, is insistent upon withdrawal of entire subsidies while the government has withdrawn only 47 per cent of them in the budget 2009-10. Besides, the IMF was also not happy with Pakistan for not imposing farm tax in the latest fiscal policy, the sources added.
Meanwhile, an official handout stated that Shaukat Tarin briefed David Lipton about the state of Pakistans economy and emphasized that the government is determined to implement its nine-point agenda for the countrys progress and prosperity.
David Lipton showed keen interest in the agenda and assured all possible cooperation by the US government in national development of Pakistan. He further said that it was really important that Pakistan is making progress in the right direction.
Earlier, the US delegation called on President Asif Ali Zardari. During the meeting, the President asked the international community to help resolve the economic problems of Pakistan, created by the war against militancy.
The world should step forward to address the economic problems to pursue the fight against militancy to its logical conclusion, the President said.
David Lipton was accompanied by US Ambassador Anne Patterson and Robert Dohner, Dy Assistant Secretary for Asia of the Treasury Department. Shaukat Tarin, Advisor to PM for Finance, Secretary General to the President M. Salman Faruqui, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Secretary Finance Salman Siddique, and Secretary Commerce Suleman Ghani were also present in the meeting.
The President said that Pakistan had to rebuild its economic infrastructure damaged during the war against militancy, revive the closed industrial units, rehabilitate over 2 million Internally Displaced Persons, strengthen its civilian law enforcement agencies and undertake a massive programme for increasing literacy to help combat militancy.
He said that this was a tall order, which Pakistan alone could not execute, and it needed the international support in this regard.
The President said that the revival of closed industrial units also needed new power plants and hydel power projects.
Zardari said that the rental power plants will come up on line by the end of this year, In addition Pakistan was trying to build about a dozen small hydel power plants to overcome power shortage.
He said the country also needed access to international markets for its product so as to generate jobs in the country.