WASHINGTON, March 15: The US Congress now has only one binding legal provision which calls for restricting US military assistance to Pakistan as a softer version proposed in the Senate is now dead, congressional staffers say.

Senators Joe Biden and John Kerry had put forward a resolution “expressing the sense of the Senate that United States military assistance to Pakistan should be guided by demonstrable progress by the government of Pakistan in achieving certain objectives related to counter-terrorism and democratic reforms.”

The resolution did not pass as the Senate approved the 9/11 bill, which was to include the resolution as an amendment, passed without it on Tuesday.

“The non-binding language was an effort to moderate the conditionality provision in the House version of the 9/11 bill,” said an aide to Senator Kerry.

The harsher version, adopted by the House of Representatives in January, says: “For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, US (military) assistance ... may not be provided to, and a licence for any item controlled under the Arms Export Control Act may not be approved for Pakistan until 15 days after the date on which the president determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the government of Pakistan is making all possible efforts to prevent the Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control, including in the cities of Quetta and Chaman and in the NWFP and Fata.”

The senators said that some senators felt the House bill was too harsh and offered the amendment as “a sensible alternative and a moderate way forward”, as one of them said.

The senators, who moved the resolution, particularly John Kerry, felt that Pakistan was a strong US ally and their objective was to offer an alternative that expresses Congress’s concerns about the activities of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas without linking US assistance to Islamabad’s efforts against terrorism.

“We had thought it must get accepted by the managers of the 9/11 bill, but they did not accept it as an amendment. The 9/11 bill is passed so the amendment is dead,” they said.

Now the Senate and House bills for the implementation of recommendations of the 9/11 commission go to the conference committee where efforts will be made to reconcile the two versions.

Since the provision about Pakistan will have only one version, that of the House, either this version will be accepted or there will be nothing on Pakistan.

“There’s no middle-of-the-road version there,” said a staffer.