OTTAWA - Pakistan says a Canadian-led G8 initiative to rehabilitate its lawless Afghanistan border region doesn't go far enough to stamp out terrorism.
Islamabad has asked Ottawa to expand the scope of its plan, and is also concerned how it will be financed: forcing Pakistan deeper into debt with international lenders, The Canadian Press has learned.
Pakistan says it is grateful for the "Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Region Prosperity Initiative" that was announced by G8 foreign ministers in March, but says it doesn't do enough to lift up the fortunes of the vulnerable, economically-backward region that is now become a safe haven for al Qaeda terrorists.
Pakistan's dubious distinction as a terror base has once again been highlighted as U.S. officials say the Pakistani Taliban directed the plot to detonate a bomb in New York City's Times Square. The accused bomber, Faisal Shahzad, is accused of spending five months in Pakistan before returning to the U.S. to prepare his attack.
Pakistan has asked Canada to consider expanding the initiative -- announced when G8 foreign ministers met in the Ottawa area in March -- arguing more needs to be done beyond one or two "signature" projects.
Pakistan has asked Canada, the chair of this year's G8, to take a second look at its wish list for addressing the series of woes that bedevil its western frontier with Afghanistan.
"Our feeling is the initiative should not confine itself to one or two high profile projects, but do something in terms of uplifting those regions," Akbar Zeb, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Canada, told The Canadian Press.
"If it's even one signature project, we can't object to that. We are happy to take that."
Canada has cited one possibility, a highway that would link Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, the two main cities that straddle the Khyber Pass.
But Pakistan pitched a much broader program of initiatives that would include poverty alleviation, improvements to infrastructure and health services.
Pakistan pitched building seven schools in strategic areas, a water purification plan, and a small dam about 30 kilometres from Peshawar.
Canada approached Pakistan for its wish list in early March, about 10 days before G8 political directors -known as Sherpas - held a major planning meeting in Ottawa.
"These are the areas that constituted the so-called breeding grounds for terrorism," said Zeb. "We need to pay more attention to the economic betterment of the region. The two governments (of Pakistan and Afghanistan) have failed in many ways to invest in those areas. The expectation was that these two areas would be developed with the help of our friends in Western countries."
Pakistan also objects to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank being the institutions that would finance the initiative because the country wants to avoid further debt. Instead it wants G8 to put some money on the table themselves.
"It shouldn't be in the form of a loan. If it is a G8 initiative, it should be G8 funding," said Zeb. "We are not looking for more loans for something like this."
Zeb said Japan might commit some money, and there could be direct G8 contribution, but he said the funding details remain "a bit hazy."
Pakistan says its portion of the highway project to the Afghan border would cost $165 million.
The G8 began looking at Pakistan in earnest in 2008, when Japan hosted the group.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon announced the Afghanistan-Pakistan initiative of behalf of his G8 counterparts in late March as part of a plan to "strengthen regional cooperation and bring greater stability to the region." At the time, Cannon said the initiative would "focus on projects, identified as priorities by the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan."
International security issues will be on the agenda when Canada hosts the G8 leaders' summit on June 25 and 26 in Ontario's Muskoka region.
