Saturday November 17, 2001
Pakistan's Untimely Collapse
US Grants $Billions in Open Credit Line Bailout!
By Howard Hobbs, Ph.D. President
Valley Press Media Network

    FRESNO STATE -- A leading Pakistan news page, The Dawn has reported today the. Bush White House has authorized a U.S. grant of $600,000,000 to assist Pakistan and help keep that government's economy from immediate collapse.
     However, the total rescue package of financal assistance announced by the US ambassador, Wendy Chamberlin, on Thursday at a signing ceremony for the grant, initially amounts to more than $1,000,000,000.
     The bail-out package also includes $300,000,000 in credit for investment promotion from Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and $73,000,000 to merely assist in securing Pakistan's long border.
     Chamberlin told reporters that more $millions will also be made available to Pakistan through the US Export-Import Bank and that the Bush White House is requesting that Congress pass legislation that would permit the government of Pakistan to make outright purchases of U.S. consumer goods with grant funds in the US market.
     The $600,000,000 grant, however, has been depicted by the ambassador as "...for direct budget and balance of payments support which is what the immediate need is."
    According to figures released this week by the Pakistan government, it has estimated a loss of about $3,000,000,000 to its economy during the current year as a consequence of the U.S. War on Terrorism.
   The immediate economic consequences to Pakistan have largely been cited in Pakistan press reports as resuilting from (1) steep increases in shipping and insurance rates, and (2) frm a sharp hike in fees by importers for the extra cost to them for checking of export goods for anthrax, and (3) signifigant numbers of cancellations orders for fear of disruption in supplies from and through the war zone.
     The war footing in Pakistan could likely result in $billions of U.S. tax money being ripped-off by easioly finding its way into Pakistan's financing further development of weapons of mass destruction , or many other non-economic uses instead of designated emergency health and social sectors of the failing economy.