WASHINGTON, Jan 5: Pakistan hopes that the new US Congress, which will be sworn in on Tuesday, will approve two crucial bills that can help revive the country’s ailing economy.
One of them – the Biden-Lugar bill – can bring as much as $15 billion for Pakistan over a period of 10 years, while the other – the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones bill – would help establish specially-designated areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan that could export products to the US without any duty.
Both bills were introduced in the 110th Congress and lapsed with it. They will now have to be reintroduced in the 111th Congress.
In the 110th Congress, both the House and the Senate had released their versions of the ROZ bill but the Congress completed its tenure while the bill was still at the conference stage.
This, however, does not affect a five-year $750 million assistance Pakistan is receiving from the US to build infrastructure in the tribal areas.
Initially, Pakistan tried to get all of the NWFP and Balochistan designated as ROZ, but it got approval for only the border areas of the two provinces.After the 2005 earthquake, certain areas in Azad Kashmir were also included in the ROZ.
The Biden-Lugar bill, which was introduced by former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden and the committee’s ranking Republican member Richard Lugar seeks “to promote an enhanced strategic partnership with the people of Pakistan,” as Senator Biden said while introducing the bill.
It will now be called the Kerry-Lugar bill as Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is set to chair the Foreign Relations Committee, replacing Mr Biden, who has been elected vice-president.
The bill triples non-military aid to Pakistan and sustains it over five years. It advocates an additional $7.5 billion over the subsequent five years.
“The legislation calls for tangible progress in a number of areas, including an independent judiciary, greater accountability by the central government, respect for human rights, and civilian control of the levers of power, including the military and the intelligence agencies,” said Senator Lugar.