70 per cent Pakistan viewed US as enemy nation, but the aid flowed on

In the year 2010, the US made a very generous grant of 4.5 billion US dollars to Pakistan. Incidentally, the aid was meant to help Pakistan in its counter-terrorism efforts. Ironically the same year, the US suffered 499 casualties in Afghanistan which incidentally is the highest.

Two years after such a generous grant was made, a research that was conducted showed that 74 per cent of the Pakistanis viewed America as an enemy. If one puts all this together and also takes into account that only 30 per cent of the aid was spent for intended purposes, then it becomes clear that Donald Trump took the right call in blocking aid to Pakistan through a New Year's tweet.

A survey that was conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2012, showed that roughly 3 of 4 Pakistanis (74 per cent) considered the US as an enemy. In fact, that number was up from 69 per cent in 2011 and 64 per cent in 2008.

More importantly, the survey went on to show that four in ten Pakistanis believed that the US military and economic aid was having a negative impact on the country. Only 1-in-ten felt that the impact was positive. Further, the survey went on to show that only that fewer Pakistanis wanted intelligence and logistic support from the US. Only 17 per cent backed the drone strikes too.

Analysts are of the view that most Pakistanis view the US aid negatively since it is never spent for the intended purposes. Investigations have revealed that only 30 per cent of the aid provided by the US has been used for counter-terrorism purposes. Further, hardly 3 per cent has been used for education in Pakistan too.

While on one hand, the Pakistan military has diverted the aid, on the other it has also stolen US defence technology and imparted it to terrorist groups. The US has expressed the most concern over groups such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. Not only a large part of the funds have been diverted, but US technology too has been stolen and shared with these terrorist groups.

OneIndia News