Hard choices on flood spending for Pakistan

Failure to meet the immediate needs of flood victims in a key province in northwest Pakistan could fuel the Taliban insurgency and pose a major regional security threat, the provincial chief minister has said.

The cost of flood relief has forced the government to suspend its 2010 development spending in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa province, although militancy remains strong there, Provincial assembly member Amir Haider Khan Hoti said.

"... if the government, if we fail to deliver, the situation is going to be disastrous and not only for this province but for Pakistan or for the region," he said.

"As you know, this is the frontline province as far as the war on terror is concerned. This would be a disastrous situation for the entire international community."

The government had planned to spend billions of dollars on development projects in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa province to win popular support and undermine militants, who often recruit Pakistanis disillusioned with the state.

The cost of immediate flood relief will delay those efforts, said Hoti. "We have compromised on our annual development plan and yesterday I suspended the entire new portfolio for our development plan for this province worth about 17 billion rupees (about $200 million) because of the floods," he said.