A New Prize For Obedience..

Both chambers of the US Congress have quietly approved a bill that seeks tough new restrictions on military aid to Pakistan, aides told Dawn on Wednesday. The bill comes up for final approval later this week.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Senator Bob Corker jointly crafted the new restrictions.

‘The Senate approved the bill on July 24 while the House of Representatives passed it earlier this month,’ an aide for Senator Corker told Dawn.

In the US legislative system, the House and the Senate work separately, which requires both chambers to craft their own versions of a proposed bill. After separate votes, the two versions are reconciled in a joint session, which is called the conference.

The proposed amendment to the National Defence Authorisation Act comes to conference later this week. If approved, as expected, it would become a law.

An earlier joint statement by the offices of the two senators said that they had successfully attached an amendment to the Department of Defence authorisation bill that passed the Senate ‘in order to help ensure that military assistance for Pakistan is actually being used for its purpose: to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda’.

The Menendez-Corker legislative language would mandate a certification by the US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence, before Pakistan is reimbursed with Coalition Support Funds, that the payment is both in the national security interests of the US, and will not affect the balance of power in the region.

‘To this point, almost eight years and more than seven billion in American taxpayer dollars for Pakistan’s military have not prevented the Taliban and Al Qaeda from regrouping along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,’ said Senator Menendez.

‘The fight against these extremists is crucial for our own security, which is why we have to certify that our support is in fact doing what we intend it to do and is not being used for other purposes.’

Mr Menendez insisted that this was an issue of national security and of responsibility with taxpayer dollars and that’s why he was seeking to further tighten the restrictions on Pakistan.

Senator Corker said that the US appreciated the important role Pakistan had played in America’s fight to eliminate the terrorist safe havens within their borders, ‘we also owe it to our service members and the American taxpayer to ensure that the funds provided to Pakistan out of the Coalition Support Funds are in fact being directed towards those efforts and not misdirected’.

The fresh limits include efforts to track where US military hardware sent to Pakistan ends up, as well as a warning that US aid to Pakistan must not upset ‘the balance of power in the region’ —a reference to tensions with India.

The limits are in a $680 billion US Defence Department spending measure for 2010 that the Senate will take up after the bill cleared the House of Representatives in a 281-146 vote on Oct 8.

If, as expected, the Senate approves the legislation, it will go to President Barack Obama to sign into law who earlier this month signed the Kerry-Lugar bill into a law.

Although the Kerry-Lugar bill tripled US economic assistance to Pakistan, it also placed some restrictions on the military aid.