WASHINGTON, June 13: US lawmakers have restored $50 million in military aid to Pakistan. Overall, Pakistan would receive $300 million in military grants next year, the same amount as this year.
The US package for Pakistan for 2008 amounts to $752.1 million. Of that, $300 million is in the Foreign Military Financing programme.
The military aid for Pakistan is linked to a bill to finance US foreign aid advanced in Congress, which now goes to the full House for passage.
The Senate will pass its own aid bill. Differences will have to be negotiated away before both chambers pass the final version.
Some lawmakers wanted to deduct $50 million from the military package as a rebuke to Islamabad’s domestic policies and its alleged failure in controlling Taliban infiltrations into Afghanistan.
The Bush administration and some Republican lawmakers, however, opposed the proposed cut. They argued that such measures could destabilise the Musharraf government already shaken by the current political crisis.
It would be a mistake to introduce cuts at this stage ''in light of the very volatile political situation in Pakistan today,” said Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican.
But the lawmakers emphasised that their endorsement was linked to Pakistan’s role in the war against terror and was not an approval of the Musharraf government’s domestic policies.
“We're not giving $3 billion a year to Pakistan over a five-year period because Pakistan is the country most in need of development assistance,” said Senator Robert Menendez.
“No, we're providing those funds because the administration sees Pakistan as a key ally that is helping with central foreign policy goals like stopping the war on terror, and we know and understand that,” said the Democrat from New Jersey.
