WASHINGTON, Feb 14: Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that the Bush administration will ask the Senate to exempt Pakistan from sanctions related to “both missile technology transfer and democracy.”
The sanctions for missile technology transfer could have been imposed on Pakistan for allegedly buying missiles from North Korea while those on democracy were warranted after the October 1999 military takeover.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this week, Mr Powell said the US would like to continue to help Pakistan as a frontline state in the war against terror and was reviewing the sanctions that hindered US assistance to that country.
“With respect to Pakistan, we are reviewing all of the various sanctions legislation that has been in existence for a number of years,” he told the committee while defending the Bush administration’s foreign assistance budget for 2004.
This includes “the democracy waiver, other waivers, Brownback II, a number of things that we are working our way through now,” he added.
Mr Powell earlier informed the committee that in his budget proposals for 2004, President George W. Bush had set aside $4.7 billion for “countries that have joined us on the front line of the campaign against terrorism.”
This includes $657 million for Afghanistan, $460 million for Jordan, $395 million for Pakistan, $255 million for Turkey, $136 million for Indonesia, and $87 million for the Philippines.
“Today our number one priority is to fight and win the global war on terrorism. The budget furthers this goal by providing economic, military and democracy assistance to key foreign partners and allies,” said Mr Powell.
But one of the committee’s senior members, Senator Gary Ackerman, Democrat, New York, interrupted the Secretary to remind him that there were sanctions against Pakistan, which prohibited any US assistance to that country.
Besides the sanctions already imposed, a US law requires the re-imposition of democracy-related sanctions on Pakistan for the coming fiscal year, the senator said.
Mr Ackerman said the US administration had not yet exercised existing authority to waive democracy-related sanctions for fiscal year 2003 and that no 2003 money was being provided to Pakistan because of concerns with their relationship with North Korea, “and allegations in the press that Pakistan might have provided highly-enriched-uranium technology to North Korea in exchange for Scud missiles.”
“Exactly what is our non-proliferation policy? Is the administration going to seek authorization to waive the democracy sanctions on Pakistan in 2004,” the senator asked.
“We will need the democracy waiver, which I think we will get back in the omnibus bill for ‘03 and then, of course, for ‘04 as well,” said Mr Powell.
He said the continuing resolution allowed the US government to use the waivers from ‘02 into ‘03 while it awaited action on the omnibus bill. “And, of course, we would ask for it in ‘04 as well, both for missile technology transfer and democracy,” he added.
