* Donors meet in New York on Thursday * Aid delivered so far "very low" * Pakistan must implement own reforms By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday urged donors at a meeting in New York this week to follow through on billions of dollars in aid promised for Pakistan, which in turn must work harder on its own reforms. Leaders from a grouping called the "Friends of Democratic Pakistan" -- including U.S. President Barack Obama -- are set to meet Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Nations pledged $5.7 billion in aid to Pakistan at a donors conference held in Tokyo last April but diplomats say only a fraction of that aid has trickled in, with donors wanting more details of how the money will be spent and questions over how well the fragile civilian government is functioning. "The delivery of pledges made in Tokyo have been very much short of the promises made. The international community needs to make good on its promises to Pakistan," said Adnan Mazarei, the Washington-based IMF mission chief for Pakistan. "It is very low," said Mazarei of funds received so far, adding that he could not provide specifics. Some of the monies promised in Tokyo were meant to focus on providing a social security net and their absence had made it tougher for Pakistan's government to implement the necessary spending on infrastructure, to reduce poverty and to help internally displaced persons, he added. "It is genuinely weakening the government's finances," said Mazarei. He said one ramification of the shortfall was that the government had to borrow from the banking system which meant less funds were available for the private sector, a trend that was harming economic growth. For its part, Mazarei said Pakistan could improve donor confidence by strengthening its own economic policies. Mazarei was in Pakistan earlier this month and said he had urged the government to make greater efforts to raise revenues more quickly via a value added tax (VAT) and to make much-needed improvements in the electricity sector. "The (Pakistani) economy has improved in terms of stability but the economy remains quite vulnerable to the global situation and to domestic policy slippages. Policies need to be strengthened, especially budgetary management," he said. "It is very important to move forward quickly with raising revenues, especially the VAT, both to be able to fund urgent, critical spending and that this should be done in a way that expands the tax base and makes the tax system more equitable," he added. The IMF bailed out Pakistan last November to avert a balance of payments crisis and in July it increased its loan to the country to $11.3 billion from an initial $7.6 billion. "These monies are a bridge for a couple of years (until) Pakistan stabilizes its economy but also puts in place reforms that help it become self-sustaining over the medium term," he said. Pakistan's civilian government is fighting against Islamist militancy and Mazarei said ongoing security problems were still a key impediment to the country's economic stability. "Any adverse development on security matters inevitably makes our job more difficult," he said, while declining comment on the current security situation. (Editing by Eric Walsh) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
Boys go through the rubble of a girl's school in the outskirts of Peshawar hours after it was destroyed early morning September 22, 2009. Suspected Islamic militants blew up a girl's ...
