Islamabad, May 31: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may seek upto USD 10 billion in aid from Washington during his US visit, as additional compensation for the losses suffered by Pakistan for co-operating with coalition forces during the US-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Pakistan's finance ministry prepared fresh estimates of losses suffered by Pakistan under various counts, including exports, investment climate and other related heads ahead of Musharraf's visit to US on June 24, local daily Dawn quoted officials as saying. The new official exercise to compute overall losses suffered by Pakistan was started after the US Central Command estimated that Pakistan suffered a cost of around 10 billion dollars during 'Operation Enduring Freedom.' Based on Centcom estimates, Pakistan's opposition parties strongly criticised the government for making a conservative estimates of its losses and asked Musharraf to demand 10 billion dollars aid package.
The Pakistan official said a final decision on the quantum of amount to be sought from us would be decided by Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. If the decision is in favour of asking for more compensation, the president will take up the issue with the US administration during his visit to Washington next month, he said.

Pakistan had earlier estimated its losses upto USD three billion. But it re-worked the figures after Centcom published the figures in its website.

Bureau Report