Islamabad, June 01: Pakistan's finance minister has contested a US military report saying that the country's economy lost an estimated US$10 billion during the Afghan war because of its adverse effects on tourism, exports and foreign investment. The report in late may by the US Central Command, which also gave new details about the help that Pakistan had given the US-led coalition that ousted neighbouring Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime, has angered Islamic leaders in Pakistan.
"The loss of US$10 billion to Pakistan for its cooperation with the US coalition in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan ... is totally baseless and unfounded," Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan's minister for finance and economic affairs, said last night.
Speaking to reporters in Islamabad, Aziz was quoted by Pakistan's state-run news agency as saying that the US$10 billion estimated loss was ludicrous because that would represent one-sixth of the country's gross domestic product, its total output of goods and services.
The nation's struggling economy actually benefited in some ways from the war, after the united states wrote off at least US$1 billion in debt, Pakistan received US$1 billion in international laid, and its repayment of US$32 billion in foreign debt was stretched out. Bureau Report