Islamabad, May 19: The Bush administration is likely to finalise a 1.2 bn USD economic package for Pakistan during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to Washington next month. Buoyed by the recent one billion debt write off by US, Pakistan has been pressing the Bush administration in recent weeks to write off its remaining 1.8 billion bilateral debt as well. The issue figured prominently during the recent visit of US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage here.
The issue has also been discussed by the ministry of finance at the official level, and US authorities have indicated their readiness to waive around a billion bilateral debt, a local daily reported today. Under the budgetary proposal for the year 2004, the US authorities have included around 395 million dollars funding besides writing off one bn dollars debt last year, it said.
The proposed 395 million dollar assistance included 200 million dollar debt waiver, 50 million dollar for border security equipment, 100 million dollar through USAid and 50 million for military hardware. It said that 200 million debt write-off by US would have an impact of one billion in Pakistan's bilateral debt when taken at net present value and would be adjusted in Pakistan's debt repayment schedule.
This would leave only 800 million dollar debt to be payable by Pakistan to US. Bureau Report