“VERY frankly, it's the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the Al Qaeda leadership.” — Leon Panetta, CIA director, on the use of Predator drones in Pakistan, May 2009.

“We have only one growth industry in Pakistan and that is conspiracy theories.” — Rashed Rahman, editor, Daily Times, January 2010.

Islamabad (via unsubstantiated Pakistani media reports) Emboldened by the success of Predator drones in taking out large numbers of militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, the US government has decided to utilise the same unmanned aircraft to deliver humanitarian assistance to the country's needy.

“Just as we so effectively rain missiles down on militants, we can air-drop essential goods and services down on everyone else,” said one highly placed official in Washington, who refused to confirm the new programme's existence while simultaneously singing its praises. “By doing so, we avoid messy questions about how and through whom to channel the aid. There are no pesky middle men; the path from drone to recipient is rapid and direct.”

Authorities in Washington acknowledge there is a catch. The aid is not free. Each bundle of supplies is accompanied by an invoice. Aid recipients are asked to mail their payments to a US government processing centre, where the monies are then conveyed to a recently established Kerry-Lugar Supplemental Aid Fund.

“We win hearts and minds through direct aid provision, and use the proceeds of this aid to finance additional aid delivery,” explained an anonymous employee of the US executive branch. “It's a virtuous cycle that will work wonders for the emerging strategic relationship between Pakistan and the United States.” He also underscored the tactical efficiency at play, noting that “we can bill dozens of Pakistanis with just one drone”.

Several Pakistani government officials here, when reached for comment, claimed to know nothing about this new strategy — dubbed the Creditor drone policy — while simultaneously demanding that the aircraft fly under the Pakistani flag.

Given the inaccessibility of the areas targeted for the air drops, early returns on the Creditor drone strategy have been difficult to ascertain. US officials claim to have already billed a number of high-level targets — impoverished Pakistanis living in some of the most water-, food-, and energy-short areas of the tribal agencies, yet who are nonetheless assumed to have sufficient monetary resources to pay for their aid.

However, reports from Fata paint a complex picture of the situation on the ground — one marked by varying degrees of gratefulness, perplexity and outright hostility expressed by locals towards the new policy. One man near Miramshah in North Waziristan recalled fleeing in terror from the dreaded sound of an oncoming drone — only to look on in disbelief as the craft deposited not Hellfire missiles, but a set of tubewells complete with installation instructions and a ream of billing papers issued in triplicate.

“I appreciate this gesture,” he said, “though I'm also not quite sure what to make of it.”

Several miles away, an elderly man was seen carting away a box emblazoned with the words 'Building Literacy, Building Governance'. Inside it was a variety of books with titles ranging from The Merits of the 'Do More' Approach to Counter-Militancy to Tax Collection for Dummies and The How-To Guide to Canal Repair. The man admitted he was illiterate, but said that he hoped to use the books as a substitute for firewood.

Meanwhile, in South Waziristan, several young men examined some newly arrived sacks of wheat and grew irate upon seeing the invoice. “How can the Americans expect us to be grateful for their drones?” they asked angrily. “They're nothing more than huge billing machines flying through the sky.”

US authorities acknowledged several concerns — a chief one being that they have billed some of the wrong people. An American source regretted how one ill-fated Creditor drone, instead of delivering its payload of iPods and Vitamin A supplements to some relatively well-off tribal leaders in South Waziristan, inadvertently dropped the package through the roof of the nearby home of a deeply impoverished labourer who US officials believe has no ability to pay.

The American government insists it plans to issue a full apology. “We'd be happy to accept collateral, but collateral damage is something we definitely want to avoid,” one official declared emphatically.An additional concern is bringing in revenue; another official confessed that the Kerry-Lugar Supplemental Aid Fund had not yet received one bill payment. “It's definitely a problem,” he stated, while refusing to elaborate further.

As word has emerged of the Creditor drones, analysts have staked out their positions. Many are condemning the policy for its indiscriminate billing. “Sure, it's a good thing that you identify the key targets and go after them,” one Lahore-based expert shrugged. “But invariably you end up billing people you don't mean to bill. And how do you justify billing high-level targets in Fata but not in other areas with similar targets, such as southern Punjab? I don't see any results or any sort of payoff. It seems the more people are billed, the angrier people get — and that means less support for the Creditor drone policy, less support for the Americans, and more triggers for militancy.”

Others, however, are calling for calm and less criticism. “Let's face it,” said a South Asia expert at a Washington think tank. “We're not hearing about large-scale riots in Fata railing against evil Creditors. And what's the alternative? Is there any other way to get direct aid to Fata's impoverished?”

The now-roofless labourer in South Waziristan, his modest dwelling caked in exploded Vitamin A and littered with shattered iPod parts, had no patience for such philosophising. “Surely there are better ways of helping others,” he muttered, using the 'vendor's copy' portion of his invoice to wipe Vitamin A powder off his face.

The writer is programme associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, DC.

michael.kugelman@wilsoncenter.org