WASHINGTON, Dec 13: A US congressional panel’s agreement to freeze $700 million in aid to Pakistan reflects a growing consensus among American lawmakers to bring new restrictions against Islamabad to force it to back the Obama administration’s exit strategy for Afghanistan.

On Monday, a US House-Senate negotiating panel agreed to freeze this large amount until Pakistan started helping US efforts to curb the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against its troops in Afghanistan.

“This freeze includes the majority of the $1.1 billion in Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund,” the House Armed Services Committee said in a statement, after the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate reached an agreement on the Annual Defence Bill.

The bill, which sets policy and spending priorities for the Pentagon, is generally considered must-pass legislation.

But a prominent US newspaper — The Wall Street Journal — warned on Tuesday that the move could fail to achieve its objective. “The threat to cut down financial resources will not be a deterrent. We’re at a point where relations are pretty much irreparable,” a regional expert told the newspaper. Other observers warned that the move would further deepen the crisis that followed the Nov 26 Nato attack which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The proposed legislation goes to vote in both the houses this week but is overshadowed by a veto threat from President Barack Obama over a matter not linked to Pakistan, although the country may benefit from it. President Obama is unhappy with a provision that requires military custody of suspected extremists who target the United States even if they are US citizens and he may veto the bill.

The bad news for Pakistan is that the measure to restrict US aid to the country enjoys bipartisan support in both chambers of the US Congress.

Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of US foreign aid, and the freeze, if implemented, would affect only a small portion of the civil and military assistance it gets each year.

But it could set a precedence for other cuts in the future, as some lawmakers strive to punish Pakistan for its alleged failure to rein in the militants who, according to US officials, launch attacks into Afghanistan from their hideouts inside Pakistan.

The IED issue is a sensitive one as the Pentagon calls it the most effective weapon the militants use against the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. US experts say the militants use fertilisers they bring from Pakistan for making the IEDs and want Pakistan to curb its use and prevent its smuggling into Afghanistan.

The United States and Pakistan recently agreed to colour the fertilisers used for this purpose to make it more detectable.