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Q and A with Pakistan Ambassador Husain Haqqani
FrontLines - August 2009
This spring, more than 2 million Pakistanis fled fighting in northwest Pakistan and the United States government authorized USAID to spend $300 million to assist them. By July 28, some
30 percent of the displaced people had returned to parts of Buner, Swat, Lower Dir, and Bajaur Agency, which are again under government
control. But the majority of the displaced remained with relatives and friends or in camps, awaiting the end of conflict so they can return home and begin rebuilding. To discuss this issue, FrontLines Editorial Director Ben Barber sat down for an interview
with Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani June 17 at the Pakistan Embassy. Excerpts follow:
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Pakistan Ambassador
Husain Haqqani
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Q: What is the current condition
of the displaced from Swat and other regions and when can they look to return to their homes?
HAQQANI:
There are more than 2 million people who have been displaced as a result of the actions of the Taliban and the military operation
to fight the Taliban back in the Malakand Agency, which is Swat and the areas adjoining it.
Basic services—food, very basic shelter, and health care—are being provided by the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] and the Pakistani government and the government of the Pashtun province—
the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.
There has been no major outbreak
of epidemics or infections in the area; no one has complained
that they are starving. Most of the people are not out on the streets under the sky, but have either tented villages or extended families and relatives who are providing them shelter.
The second stage is rehabilitation—
enabling these people to go back to their homes once those areas are cleared of the terrorists.
In some parts, the terrorists booby-trapped the region.
The third stage is critical—reconstruction. Most of the towns in the area have been totally destroyed, partly because of the fierce fighting, partly because the Taliban took shelter
in buildings that had to be destroyed to be able to destroy the Taliban command and control
centers.
Estimates of reconstruction costs range between $1.3 billion to $2.5 billion.
Q: Is U.S. assistance reaching the displaced?
HAQQANI:
U.S. assistance has started reaching
the Pakistanis. The first $110 million [has] gone. But the next $200 million [was] committed
and [awaits] congressional approval through the supplemental
budget. Now that that has happened, I think that, too, will be dispersed.
Private U.S. assistance from American non-governmental organizations and philanthropies
has also been mobilized and there is some presence of American support organizations in the relief camps.
Q: What could be done to improve delivery of relief?
HAQQANI:
In the case of the [relief after the 2005] earthquake, there was no immediate security threat to any of the relief workers, or for that matter, to the displaced persons.
In this case, there are some pockets of the Taliban in the mountains around the area. The potential for booby traps exists. And so any relief effort would have to be coordinated with the Pakistani military.
But we will need trucks; we will need Chinook helicopters down the road; and, above all, we will need relief materials. And in the rehabilitation phase, we will need basic services like water purifying equipment, basic medical care; a lot of the women in the camps are pregnant—they will need help.
These are mountain people used to a cooler climate. When they come down into the plains or the plateau as displaced persons there’s an immense need for them to have things like desert coolers.
Many displaced people are living with extended family. So they may actually not need direct assistance but only compensation
that will enable their extended families to continue to support them.
We will need $125 million for displacement cash compensation;
$600 million for relief operation and camp management;
restoration of livelihoods is another $175 million; and reconstruction and rehabilitation is about $1.1 billion.
Q: Will prompt delivery of humanitarian aid affect public support for the Pakistan government?
HAQQANI:
It would be crucial for the government of Pakistan to demonstrate that when the people rise up to oppose the Taliban, the government will be able to provide for them and look after them—and that the international community stands behind the people of Pakistan in opposing the Taliban.
The Taliban have, in the past, used a mixture of religious
extremist rhetoric and rhetoric about dispossession and poverty. If people feel that the state and the international community [were] unable to give them significant help, they would be less likely to sustain their resistance to the Taliban. Popular support has been crucial in the success of the military operations. But we all know that popular support waxes and wanes.
Q: In the Northwest Frontier Province, and also the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, how can civilian aid workers assist people when there’s such a security risk to the aid workers?
HAQQANI:
Security and aid work go together in such areas. Only in areas where security has been provided can aid follow. At the same time, I think that we have to be innovative in enrolling more local people into the aid effort. Local people are always more willing to take risks than foreign
aid workers.
That said, USAID and many other aid agencies have been very great; they have many committed
and dedicated people. When it comes to food assistance and providing relief, I think that there’s a greater degree of ability of aid workers to go in.
For bigger projects that involve building of an infrastructure, I think that it would be prudent for the U.S. Congress also to consider changing some of the rules for such areas so that we do not always require American contractors and large numbers of Americans. The aid workers can be supervisors of a local workforce that understands how to work around the security problem in their neighborhoods and their towns.
In conflict areas, it’s never convenient
to have large numbers of foreigners because they’re targets for hostage-taking and stuff like that. It’s always better to have more local people—then you also generate jobs in the process. And, in a tribal structure, when a person of a tribe is employed by, say, for example, USAID, that tribe then develops an interest in protecting the aid project.
Q: How could Pakistan develop and become the next China, the next Brazil?
HAQQANI:
I think Pakistan needs to bridge the gap in its education and literacy sphere; develop infrastructure; energize our agriculture sector; enhance productivity; conserve water; make sure we have a whole value chain—seed improvement,
marketing of commodities, horticulture—things that have been ignored.
Pakistan’s agricultural growth used to be around 5 percent in the 1950s. It is just around 1 percent per annum now. There is a need for investment and better inputs so that 45 percent of the population that is engaged in agriculture [can] improve their lives.
Second, Pakistan cannot industrialize
without fulfilling its energy needs in renewable energy, oil and gas exploration, development of our significant coal reserves—so clean-coal technology would be required for that.
The third is to develop the higher education sector so that we have more engineers and more
scientists and trained teachers.
Then we also need to invest in our people’s health, make sure that everyone gets clean drinking water. We also need assistance in institution building, governance, judiciary. Pakistan has become a democracy now after a long time. And we need to make sure that our law enforcement, our criminal justice system at the district level, our subordinate judiciary are all effective.
We also need to provide a social safety net for poverty reduction.
Our manufacturing sector will be more competitive only if we have greater market access to the European Union and the United States. It would have minimal impact on the overall volume of American trade or European trade, but it would mean a lot for the people of Pakistan.
We are still a big textile manufacturer
but our textile products need market access.
★
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