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Summary US Congress want to toughen and broaden restrictions on military and economic aid to Pakistan.
Senator Richard Lugar says the US effort to aid Pakistan named after him and two other lawmakers has not had enough time to achieve one of its main goals: dispel Pakistani mistrust of the United States.Few others in Congress seem keen to give it more time or money.Following US accusations that some in the Pakistani government have aided anti-US militants, Congress is reevaluating its 2009 promise to triple nonmilitary aid to Pakistan to a total of $7.5 billion over five years.The non-military aid came on top of billions in security assistance Washington has provided since 2001, and is now rethinking as well.The economic aid was intended to convince Pakistan the United States could look beyond counterterrorism cooperation and show concern for Pakistans long-term development, in areas including infrastructure and agricultural.That approach was heartily endorsed by the Obama administration, and the 2009 law authorizing the aid was named after its sponsors: Lugar, a Republican, and two Democrats, Senator John Kerry and Representative Howard Berman.But Pakistans suspicions of the United States do not appear to have eased, and US mistrust of Islamabad definitely has grown. Washington last week said Pakistans powerful ISI spy agency backed the Afghan Taliban-allied Haqqani network, and provided support for the groups September 13 attack on the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul.Now, US congressional appropriators in both the Republican-run House and Democratic-run Senate want to toughen and broaden restrictions on military aid to Pakistan and extend them to economic aid as well.Our message to Pakistan is: We cant help you unless you help us, said Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate foreign aid appropriations subcommittee.In an interview with Reuters, Graham said he had been a supporter of Kerry-Lugar-Berman, but theres been a turn there.Were not writing checks without being able to identify progress.Starting next year, lawmakers are proposing to make economic as well as military aid conditional on Pakistans cooperation in fighting militants such as the Haqqani network.Such conditions are almost certain to inflame sensitivities further in Pakistan.The appropriators havent even bothered to specify an amount of new economic aid for Pakistan for fiscal 2012, leaving it to the Obama administration to come back to Congress and request funding if the conditions are met.The proposals must be approved by the full House and Senate and are subject to running budget battles in Congress.Other key senators also sound unenthusiastic about voting more aid to Pakistan, even if it means backing down on the Kerry-Lugar-Berman promise.I am very reluctant to vote for the additional economic aid while they are giving support to the Haqqani group. ... So Id be very reluctant to vote for anything like Kerry-Lugar, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee said in this week.I think that Congress has lost its appetite for dealing with a country that is clearly in some ways a friend of the United States, and in other ways hedging its bets and siding with those who are placing our forces at risk, said Karl Inderfurth, assistant US secretary of state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration.
