WASHINGTON: A US lawmaker has asked the administration to reduce its aid to Pakistan to offset the impact of sequestration on funds needed for projects at home.

Congressman Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, also blamed Pakistan for not respecting the human rights of religious minorities, particularly Christians.

“Why are we funding education programmes for our Benedict Arnold ally when we can’t fund — or don’t fund — the education for our military?” asked the Congressman as he prepared to move his bill later Tuesday.

Benedict Arnold was a general during the American Revolutionary War who defected to the British Army.

“And to Pakistan of all places, where hatred for America is at its highest. Washington should watch its spending and prioritise,” Mr Poe said on the floor of the House. “It’s time, Mr Speaker, to sequester Pakistan.”

Budget sequestration is a procedure in US law that limits the size of the federal budget, setting a hard cap on government spending. Congress imposed the restriction on the Obama administration on March 1.

Congressman Poe is among a dozen other lawmakers, from both Republican and Democratic parties, who are asking the administration to reduce foreign assistance to deal with the sequester.

They are particularly focused on a budget cut which has resulted in tuition cuts for US troops.

Mr Poe said the programme to educate the soldiers was roughly point 1 per cent of the US defence budget but has helped graduate 50,000 individuals. He said the US Marines spent roughly $47 million from the programme last year — comparing that to the $12.7 million spent on higher education in Pakistan.

“And that’s not all,” Mr Poe said. “Since the sequester, the administration has approved $37 million in foreign aid to Pakistan.”

The figure on higher education aid represents just a fraction of the $47.2 million the US spent on education and social services aid to Pakistan in fiscal 2012. The US spent a total of $370 million on all forms of aid to Pakistan that year — which also represents just a fraction of the total amount obligated.

The lawmakers are also objecting to a $250 million aid package recently announced for Egypt.

Mr Poe is also backing another bilateral move to censure Pakistan for allowing militants to attack religious minorities.

“Mr Speaker, Pakistan takes our money but they do not respect the human rights of religious minorities. Some radical Muslims believe that other religions should be tolerant of their faith, but they are not tolerant of Christians and other Muslim sects,” he said inside the House.

“This ought not to be. But that’s just the way it is.”

He informed the House that religious extremists were targeting Christians and the Pakistani government has failed to protect them.

“Some say that the religious laws are used as a tool to deal with personal vendettas,” he observed.

Mr Poe told the House that earlier this month a Christian man living in Pakistan was accused of committing blasphemy and attacked by a mob.

Instead of arresting the attackers, police arrested the victim, he said, adding that “fearing for their safety, hundreds of other Christian families fled in the dark of the night”. He also showed a picture to other lawmakers, showing a large mob attacking a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore, ransacking their homes and setting them ablaze.