04 April 2004	Sunday	13 Safar 1425

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3: The Pakistan-American Alliance, a leading Pakistani-American group, has launched a campaign to counter the US-India Political Action Committee's drive to stop Pakistan from being designated as a "major non-Nato US ally."

The US Congress will receive a notification from the State Department to designate Pakistan a "major non-NATO ally".

In a statement, the PAA said it is regretted that the US-India Committee has launched this malicious campaign against Pakistan at a time when its relations with India are on a path of friendship and normalization at a very rapid pace.

"The ... Indian American lobby wants to poison the current atmosphere of reconciliation and normalization that followed the January talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpai."

"The US-India Political Committee is arguing that there is a possibility that the US transfers F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan that can be used to drop nuclear weapons, thereby placing the whole region, from Israel to India, in serious danger."