WASHINGTON DC: The US government has put a temporary freeze on assistance to Pakistan, along with several other countries, which has caused several key development projects in the country to grind to a halt.
The US State Department has directed all diplomatic and consular missions to discontinue foreign aid programs immediately, with the suspension set to last for an initial period of 90 days.
Pakistan is not the only nation subject to such an order; others include Ukraine, Taiwan, and Jordan. U.S. officials have given quite a lot of credence to the view that all aid programs to Pakistan have been suspended pending a thorough review, which has disrupted quite a few sectors in Pakistan.
These changes include the suspension of the Ambassador Fund for Cultural Preservation. Five major projects in the field of energy have also been shut down. Of the programs affected within Pakistan are economic growth initiatives, with four halted.
Further, five projects in agriculture have lost their funding, while assistance for democracy, human rights, and governance has also temporarily ceased. Education and health projects have been allowed to move forward, and 11 governance programs have also been halted due to the US decision.
The US continues to insist that this is just a suspension, but the final outcome of these programs will only be reached after more thorough reviews.
It wasn’t entirely unexpected. Within a few hours following the commencement of his presidency, Trump had ordered a temporary halt to foreign aid for an interval of 90 days to review if it aligned with his priorities concerning international diplomacy.
However, the recent stop-work order from the State Department affecting worldwide installments put billions of dollars of life-saving aid into doubt. The US is the single largest donor of the aid in the world, distributing $72 billion in program assistance in fiscal year 2023 and issuing 42 percent of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
