The financial relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been under heavy inspection after the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Observers say that the U.S. pulling the plug on aid for Pakistan would “not be catastropic,” but it would have an adverse impact on the Asian country’s already fragile economy.
“It would not be immediately catastrophic,” Austin Long, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University in New York, told BBC. “But the country’s economy has not being doing well for some time now with extremism and natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes.”
The U.S. Congress is divided on whether or not to immediately cut aid to Pakistan as the latter’s commitment to U.S. counterinsurgency efforts is questioned after bin Laden’s discovery and death in the Asian country.
>> US Congress Weighs Cutting Aid to Pakistan
Long, however, is not that confident about the aid Pakistan has received over the years.
“Some of it has done some good, particularly in frontier regions, but it is tough to know where a lot of it goes,” he said, as quoted by BBC.
Kamran Mizra, chief executive of the Pakistan Business Council, said he is aware that the world is intensely observing the Asian country but hopes that Pakistan’s chilly relationship with the U.S. ends and returns to normal.
“In the short term, things are not looking good for Pakistan,” Mizra said. “After the events of 11 September 2001 we had a very similar situation but we bounced back and we had the highest domestic growth between 2003 and 2007, along with a very large inflow of foreign investment.”
Read more about U.S. development aid.
