WASHINGTON, Oct 21: US lawmakers have pledged to get more aid for the Oct 8 quake victims in Pakistan and are also backing a bi-partisan bill allowing undocumented Pakistani nationals in the US to visit their relatives in their native country.
“It is time for coordinated efforts to help the victims of this disaster,” Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee told a meeting of the Pakistan Caucus on Thursday evening. Ms Lee, a Democratic legislator from Texas and a prominent member of the caucus, is also a co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill which seeks to grant temporary protected status to Pakistani nationals living in the US.
The bill, if passed, will allow undocumented Pakistanis living in the US to travel to Pakistan and come back to the US on a special permit under Section 244 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act.
The temporary protected status is granted to aliens who do not legally qualify as refugees but are reluctant to return to a potentially dangerous situation. It allows them to temporarily remain in the United States.
Many Pakistanis and Pakistani-Americans lost relatives and friends in the earthquake. Many also have relatives who were seriously injured, and children who have lost their parents.
The bill’s original co-sponsors include: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, (D-TX), Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX), Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Congresswoman Jane Schakowsky (D-IL), Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI).
At the caucus meeting— attended by US legislators, State Department officials, Pakistan’s ambassador, a senator from Pakistan and prominent members of the Pakistani community-– a roadmap was charted out for underlining efforts for providing relief to the victims.
The group agreed to work on different levels, starting with the US Congress and extending to the State Department and the Pakistani-American community, to raise awareness about the need to stay involved with the relief and rehabilitation efforts.
She said Pakistan has always been “a good friend” of the US and Congress will not only support the call for additional help but “we might be a leader in that.”
The Congresswoman emphasized the need to send more medicines, tents and blankets, adding: “We have several attainable items, and we now have a basic road map, and individual groups are now more aware of what to do.”
She encouraged the caucus to do more donation drives, and hoped that its initiative would be “a convincing success.”
Thomas Callahan, assistant secretary of state for the legislative branch, said the rehabilitation work would require “a long-term engagement of the international community” and the US will play a leading role in this phase as well.
“We have a strong desire and interest to render all the help and assistance to Pakistan, which is a great ally of the United States,” he added.
A representative of the State Department’s Bureau of South Asian Affairs told the gathering that out of $50 million the US has pledged to Pakistan, $15 million have already been delivered. Some 300,000 tons of grain, tents, purified water and medicines have also been sent.
The US, he said, had already sent 21 helicopters for relief operations, 12 from the department of defence, four from a base in Afghanistan and five from the anti-narcotics task force.
He expressed the hope that a UN-sponsored donor’s conference, being held in Geneva on Wednesday, would pledge additional funds for relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake victims.
The state department official said the US has dispatched some 20,000 tents and appealed to the international community to send more tents as at least 300,000 tents are required to shelter all the victims.
He said that although 7,000 medical experts were already in the field, more might be needed. “If there is need for more, we will rush more assets, helicopters, tents, medicines, whatever is needed.”
Ambassador Karamat thanked the US administration and the international community for their “generous assistance and support and appealed to the donors to continue to support Pakistan’s relief and rehabilitation efforts.
