The Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan, adjoining the Afghan border, have long been known to be a hothouse of backwardness and lawlessness.
Tribal leaders rule the roost in FATA, and the Pakistani government has little or no presence. A recent America report says Osama bin laden is hiding there, with local help -- something that has been suspected for a while now.
The United States is now planning to pour aid money -- $750 million over five years -- into the region, in an effort to win hearts and minds, and wean people away from the extreme backwardness that feeds terrorism.
The aid money to fight terrorism plan was made public when Richard Boucher, the American assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, visited Pakistan in June.
'The objective driving this decision is the hope that by bringing the FATA into the mainstream and assuring that basic human services and infrastructure are on par with the rest of Pakistan, the people of FATA would be less likely to welcome the presence of Al Qaeda and Taliban,' the US Agency for International Development draft states, according The New York Times.
But there are concerns within America that the money might not achieve the result it is intended to -- fight terrorism.
The New York Times report, quoting from the USAID plan, says there are severe doubts whether the aid money can be tracked and whether it will help fight chronic underdevelopment and volatility, all of which contribute to it being a haven for terrorist outfits like the al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The report goes on to add that the area, home to 3.2 million people, is so backward and so xenophobic -- the phobia extends to anything modern, including medicine -- that a Pakistani doctor was murdered when he tried to counter a cleric's anti-vaccination propaganda. Female literacy is among the lowest in the world, there is no bank, and drugs and contraband smuggling are rampant.
The report, quoting officials involved and visiting FATA on the ground, says that 'the precarious security does not allow the Americans to assess the aid priorities firsthand, or to provide oversight for the first instalment of $150 million allocated by the Bush administration.'
The report goes on to illustrate just how lawless and steeped in backwardness the region is, and how a powerful few political agents are demanding that the aid money be given to them.
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