IMF Tells Pakistan To Cut Army-- The Australian
THE International Monetary Fund yesterday ordered Pakistan to cut military spending by almost a third as fears grew that the nuclear-armed nation's economic crisis was now so bad that its role in the war against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban was imperilled.
The secret IMF demand - one of several measures that the bankrupt country is being asked to agree to for a bailout of its tanking economy - was disclosed as President Asif Ali Zardari prepared to go cap in hand to Saudi Arabia for help.
Also yesterday, it was announced that US General David Petraeus would travel to Islamabad next week for talks.
Amid reports that General Petraeus was planning the same strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan that he used in Iraq, it emerged that the boss of Islamabad's spy agency, the ISI, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, was in Washington to mend fences over his organisation's double-dealing with the militants.
A senior military source in Islamabad told The Weekend Australian last night: "A cut to military spending of anything like that magnitude - even 10per cent, let alone the more than 30per cent that is being demanded - would rip the heart out of the army and its ability to operate effectively in a situation where it is in the front line of the battle against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban ... If we go, al-Qa'ida wins. Is that what the IMF wants to see?"
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My Comment: The IMF is telling Pakistan that if you want money .... cut your Army .... even if it means an Al Qaeda/Taliban victory.
As if the Taliban will feel obliged to pay off the IMF