WASHINGTON, Feb 4: The Obama Administration is seeking early congressional action on a proposal for a three-fold increase in US economic assistance to Pakistan, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

The proposal, if approved, could bring $1.5 billion of annual assistance for Pakistan for a period of 10 years. Introduced in the Senate last summer by then-Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr and co-sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obama, the bill will also condition military assistance to Pakistan with benchmarks for progress in combating extremists.

Although the proposal, known as the Biden-Lugar bill, expired with the 110th Congress, it was automatically placed on the agenda of the 111th Congress.

The Obama administration’s intention to seek an early approval, also reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, has started hectic activities on Capitol Hill where both pro- and anti-Pakistan lobbies are busy campaigning for and against the bill, now known as the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act.

While Pakistani diplomats have contacted almost all key senators to lobby for the bill, Indian-American organisations have formed a new ‘task force’ to advocate a tougher US stance. They not only oppose the bill but are also seeking economic sanctions on Pakistan.

But diplomatic sources told Dawn that the authorisation process of the proposed act would start soon. The appropriation process starts soon after.

The move is part of the Obama administration’s new strategy which treats Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theatre of war but also seeks to deepen and expand its relationship with Pakistan.

In this new strategy, in Afghanistan stability takes precedence over democracy while in Pakistan the US will work with the new democratic set-up to strengthen democracy.

The plan also advocates a diplomatic outreach to Iran and other neighbouring nations for bringing stability to Afghanistan.

Senior officials of the Obama administration told the Post that they saw Pakistan as a major US partner under serious threat of internal collapse.

This is fundamentally different from the Bush administration’s focus on the country as a Taliban and Al Qaeda “platform” for attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.

Meanwhile, US officials interviewed in Pakistan told the

Post that they were seeing militants moving eastward from the country’s border with Afghanistan towards major population areas.