War on terror cost Pak 10 billion dollars in 2008-09

October 5th, 2009 PESHAWAR - Much of the 6.6 billion-dollar American aid meant to strengthen Pakistan's role in the war on terror never reached the Pakistan Army, ex-Pakistani ambassador to the US, General Mahmud Durrani, has revealed. Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only 500 million of the 6.6 billion-dollar American aid made it to the Pakistani military.

September 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has approved 2.376 billion dollars as aid for Pakistan. The US government has also tabled an aid bill of 2.282 billion dollars in the Congress for Pakistan for the financial year 2009-10.

September 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The United States has provided 970 million dollars in aid to Pakistan since the PPP-led Government came to power and not three billion dollars as claimed by US Ambassador Anne Patterson, a Pakistani Finance Ministry official has said. The statement of US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, about giving 3 billion dollars assistance to the Zardari Government even surprised the top economic managers of the country.

August 26th, 2009 NICOSIA - The Government-owned conglomerate Dubai World owed 59 billion dollars in debts at the end of 2008, its property subsidiary Nakheel said in a financial exchange filing to NASDAQ Dubai. This represents a big part of the Dubai Government debt, believe to amount to 80 billion dollars.

August 19th, 2009 KARACHI - India has suffered a massive loss of about 410 million dollars in its exports to Pakistan due to the heightened tension between both countries following the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. According to a data, during the fiscal year 2008-09 Pakistan's imports from India dropped to 1.03 billion dollars as against 1.44 billion dollars in 2007-08, a down fall of 410 million dollars.

August 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Currency worth Rs.1.2231 trillion ($15 billion) is circulating in Pakistan in the form of 4.1588 billion notes, the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, was informed Thursday. State Bank of Pakistan and commercial banks had foreign exchange reserves of $11.68 billion as on Aug 4, Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen said in a written reply.

July 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has urged the US, the UK, Japan and other friendly nations, which are part of a group called the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP), that prolonged financial crunch could impact Islamabad's fight against terrorism. The FoDP was launched in New York on September 26, 2008 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.

July 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's war against terrorism has cost it more than 35 billion dollars, the country's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has claimed. Addressing a joint press conference with EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, Qureshi said Pakistan wants aid promised by the international community to provide aid to the affected people, The Dawn reports.

July 2nd, 2009 MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today said that modernisation of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier should be completed as soon as possible so that it can be delivered to India in 2012, as the project had become the sole irritant in Russian-Indian relations. "This is the first, very difficult experience.

June 21st, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, has claimed that the United States is indebted to pay one billion dollars to Pakistan for fuel supplies to the NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan. A private television channel reported Haroon, as saying that out of the 10 billion dollars that Washington provided to Islamabad as aid, six billion dollars have already been spent on the 'war on terror'.

June 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Apart from hiking its defense spending by a whopping 15.3 percent, the Pakistan government has allocated 102.4 billion rupees for the Armed Forces Development Plan (AFDP) for fiscal 2009-10, country's Finance Secretary Salman Siddique has announced. The AFDP was initiated by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to modernize nation's armed forces.

June 8th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has no intensions to curtail its India-specific defence budget, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has said. Major General Abbas rejected some international appeals that suggested that Pakistan should cut down its India specific defence expenditures, and focus more on the 'war on terror'.

May 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While the Obama Administration is pushing for a tripled aid package to Pakistan amounting to about 1.5 billion dollars per year over the next five years to assist the troubled nation to expand its struggle against the Taliban and other extremist groups, several US Senators are skeptical about the effectiveness of the billions of dollars in thwarting terror. Some of the US House members are of the view that Pakistan must be made more accountable for the financial help it receives, and want to string the aid with more conditions.

April 23rd, 2009 NICOSIA - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced a revised outlook for the global air transport industry with losses of 4.7 billion dollars in 2009. This forecast is significantly worse than IATA's December forecast of a 2.5 billion dollars loss in 2009, reflecting the rapid deterioration of global economic conditions.

April 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The US led 'War on Terror' has cost Pakistan six billion dollars during 2007-08, the head of a panel of Planning Commission economists Dr. Hafiz Pasha has said.