ISLAMABAD: Top US envoy Richard Holbrooke vowed on Wednesday to help Pakistan deal with its crushing energy crisis and provide economic assistance, a key part of Washington’s strategy to fight militancy.
“We have made a major turn in our relations with Pakistan under President Barack Obama,” said Holbrooke, telling a press conference in economic hub Karachi that their focus was not only on battling the Taleban.
“We are now stressing the needs of all Pakistani people, to put an emphasis on what you have told us is your number one concern: energy,” he said.
Pakistan faces a crippling energy crisis, as it is only able to produce about 80 percent of the electricity it needs, causing debilitating blackouts and suffocating industry.
“The United States is committed to assisting Pakistan to move beyond its current energy crisis and we are vigorously pursuing ways to expand our engagement,” Richard Holbrooke said. “But let me emphasize that the US does not have a magic solution for Pakistan’s energy problems. They have been at least 25 years in the making, they were predicted by international economists and experts, and they will not be solved easily.” Holbrooke said that Washington was setting up a task force of experts to help Pakistan deal with the crisis and was in talks with international financial institutions to provide the South Asian nation with economic help.
He also said the US consulate in Karachi would begin issuing 100 business visas a week for Pakistanis.
Holbrooke again praised recent gains against the Taleban in the northwest, where Pakistan claims to have cleared fighters from three districts around the Swat valley after launching a fierce offensive in late April.
On Wednesday he said the battle against extremists was “a different kind of war with a different kind of enemy that straddles the border of the two countries and poses equal threats to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States.” “Its a common enemy,” he said.
— With input from agencies
