The work of a new Pakistani-US organization can go far to ease the burdens of many Pakistanis as their government battles the Taliban and al-Qaeda and strengthens its economy and institutions, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
Clinton, the keynote speaker at the American Pakistan Foundation’s inaugural benefit to raise funds for the organization, told some 500 people that the US plans to focus future additional aid on energy, transportation, agriculture, water and education.
But the work that needs to be done in Pakistan, beyond aid to bolster the economy and military operations against the Taliban, can’t be done by governments alone, she said.
“Peace and prosperity cannot be pursued only in the marble halls of Washington or Islamabad, but in boardrooms and classrooms, mosques and churches and synagogues, public squares and private homes,” she said.
The official launch of the American Pakistan Foundation comes just days after bombings in two Pakistan cities killed 46 people, a coordinated attack by militants in the wake of a Pakistani army offensive against a Taliban stronghold in the northwest near the Afghan border.
Most militant attacks in recent weeks have been directed at security forces, though several have targeted crowded public spaces like markets, apparently to create public anger and increase pressure on the government to call a halt to the offensive.
More than 400 people have been killed since the beginning of October, including 105 in a Peshawar market frequented by women.
That attack occurred while Clinton was visiting Pakistan.
During that trip, Clinton said she found it “hard to believe” that no one in Pakistan’s government knew where al-Qaeda’s leadership was hiding and warned that once the offensive is finished, “the Pakistanis will have to go on to try to root out other terrorist groups, or we’re going to be back facing the same threats.”
US officials have long said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks operate out of the lawless region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan publicly reacted to Clinton’s chiding with a mixture of acceptance and resentment.
“During my October trip, I experienced the skepticism felt by many in Pakistan about America’s motives and commitment. This trust deficit holds us back from working together as well as we could and as well as we must,” she said. “Each of you, and this organization now, is uniquely positioned to help close that gap.”
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