WASHINGTON, April 17: The Democrats, who already control the US Congress and are likely to win the 2008 presidential election as well, have started consultations to offer a new $7 billion aid package to Pakistan.

“The United States needs to stay engaged with Pakistan,” says Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat and co-chair of the bipartisan Pakistan Caucus on Capitol Hill. “We cannot stand idly by while the new Pakistani government struggles to strengthen democracy.”

Senior congressional aides told Dawn that the Democrats have started consultations on an aid package initiated last year by Joseph Biden, a six-term senator and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

While there’s little possibility of an early approval of the Biden package, diplomatic sources in Washington say that the US may soon offer $200 million to help stabilise the newly elected government in Islamabad.

Mr Biden, who was also a candidate for this year’s presidential election but later dropped out of the race, had put together this package “to encourage Pakistan to stay on the road to democracy.”

The package includes $1.5 billion a year in civilian aid for at least five years and a $1 billion “democracy dividend” as a reward for holding elections and forming a coalition government.

It proposes to tie counter-terrorism aid to Pakistan’s performance in the war against terror and to provide more assistance to civilian law enforcers.

A report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Thursday, however, presented this aid package as a new strategy agreed between Washington and the civilian rulers in Islamabad.

But sources at the US State Department and the Pakistan Embassy in Washington told Dawn that they have not heard of a new strategy or aid package for Pakistan.

They explained that the current $3.2 billion aid package expires in October 2009 and by then Washington will have a new administration, which will want to negotiate a new deal with Pakistan on its own terms.

“So, it makes little sense for the current administration to finalise a five-year package so close to the US presidential election,” scheduled on Nov 4, said a source.

Sources in the US Congress also said that they do not expect the legislature to approve Senator Biden’s proposal before the US presidential election.

The package, however, is seen in Congress as a major strategic move for encouraging democracy in Pakistan. It would triple the amount of non-military aid to Pakistan, and is aimed at redefining the bilateral relationship.

Senator Biden’s proposal also shifts US focus from dependence on the military to a greater engagement with political forces in Pakistan.