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US to pay Pakistan $300 million for fighting militants

Pakistan is likely to get $300 million from the United States for costs incurred in fighting militants, officials said, even as the U.S. questions aid to Pakistan after Osama bin Laden was found there.
/ Source: Reuters

Pakistan is likely to get $300 million from the United States for costs incurred in fighting militants, officials said on Thursday, at a time U.S. legislators have been questioning aid to Pakistan after Osama bin Laden was found there.

The funds are part of a so-called Coalition Support Fund (CSF), a U.S. program to reimburse countries that have incurred costs supporting counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.

"Pakistan should receive $300 million soon," said a Pakistani finance official who declined to be identified.

The United States has reimbursed Pakistan $7.4 billion under the CSF program since 2001, when Pakistan joined the U.S.-led campaign against militancy. Funds that come in through the CSF are not officially designated as U.S. foreign aid.

Image: Pakistani policemen investigate the site of a bomb blast at the main entrance of the district courts in the town of Nowshera on May 10.
Pakistani policemen investigate the site of a bomb blast at the main entrance of the district courts in the town of Nowshera, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Peshawar on May 10, 2011. A bomb attack targeting a court in northwest Pakistan killed two police constables including a female officer and wounded six other people, police said. AFP PHOTO/ A MAJEED (Photo credit should read A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)A. MAJEED / AFP

Some U.S. lawmakers have questioned whether Pakistan was serious about fighting militants after U.S. special forces found and killed al-Qaida leader bin Laden in a Pakistani town near the capital on May 2.

Some of them have called for a suspension of aid but the U.S. administration has stressed the importance of maintaining cooperation with the uneasy ally in the interests of battling militancy and bringing stability to neighboring Afghanistan.

Little accountability
Pakistan has rejected accusations that it was either incompetent in tracking down the man behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States or complicit in hiding him in the town of Abbottabad, 30 miles north of Islamabad.

U.S. legislators have long complained there is little accountability for the funds given Pakistan through the CSF. In 2008, U.S. auditors said there was not always enough documentation to verify that costs being reimbursed were valid.

The U.S. funds are due as cash-strapped Pakistan is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of the next tranche of an $11.3 billion loan.

Pakistan and IMF officials began talks on Wednesday — meetings moved to Dubai after bin Laden's death — aimed at getting agreement on enough reforms in the coming budget to restart a halted IMF bailout loan.

In August last year, the IMF stopped releasing funds because of Pakistan's patchy implementation of promised fiscal reforms.