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Pakistan says US aid bill asks too much

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Today President Obama signed legislation authorizing an addition seven-billion dollars in aid to Pakistan. But some Pakistani officials are not happy with the additional aid. They say it comes with too many strings attached. The World’s Matthew Bell has the story.

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MARCO WERMAN: Well, help may indeed be on the way from the U.S.  President Obama today signed a huge aid bill for Pakistan. The legislation offers $7.5 Billion in non-military assistance over the next five years.  The original version of the bill had set off a whirlwind of debate in Pakistan. Critics said conditions written into the package infringed on the country’s sovereignty.  Not so, say the Congressional authors of the legislation, but Washington does want Pakistan to make some changes.  Here’s The World’s Matthew Bell.

MATTHEW BELL: Pakistan’s powerful military leaders didn’t like the way Congress put specific demands into its aid package. The demands added up to a U.S. desire for more civilian government control in Pakistan and more results when it comes to the military’s crackdown on extremist groups.  Ensuing political crisis in Pakistan prompted the Foreign Minister to make a last-minute visit to Washington this week.  And yesterday, the American authors of the Aid Bill took an unusual step.  They added a clarification to the legislation.  Democratic Senator John Kerry said the new language clarified one thing in particular.

SENATOR JOHN KERRY: The legislation does not seek in any way to compromise Pakistan’s sovereignty.  It does not seek to impinge on the national security interests or even to micro manage any aspect of Pakistan’s military or civilian operations.

BELL: Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he was satisfied with the clarification.

SHAH MEHMOOD QURESHI: I’m here to strengthen the partnership between Pakistan and the United States between democracies, between two democracies, and I’m glad that I saw democracies function.

BELL: The irony here of course is that Qureshi’s repetition of the word “democracy” came during a visit that was forced on him by Pakistan’s military elite.  Tarek Fatah says those elites see the writing on the wall or in Congressional legislation, to be more specific.  Fatah is a Canadian writer and a former Pakistani political activist. He says those conditions from Congress amount to a complete u-turn for U.S. policy toward Pakistan.

TAREK FATAH: Up to now, the Americans have dealt essentially with the commanders in chief of Pakistan armed forces, and the civilian authorities would never really know what sort of money or equipment was coming in.  It used to be outside the budget of the Pakistani government, and parliamentarians were never supposed to ask the question of what money went where?

BELL: Fatah applauds what Congress is trying to do.  He says the absence of civilian oversight in Pakistan has given the military elites, and their political allies a free hand.  And he says they’ve used that free hand to support the same extremist groups that are fighting U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan.

FATAH: Unless there’s democracy in Pakistan, the Taliban will always find a helping hand from the armed forces and no matter how many American troops go to Afghanistan, there will be more people who will be volunteering to come and fight the Americans from the Pakistani side.

BELL: But Pakistan is becoming more democratic says Timothy Hoyt.  Hoyt is a South Asia expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. And he says encouraging that democratic evolution by making specific demands tied to U.S. aid is an important shift for Washington.

TIMOTHY HOYT: It is a subtle change on the civilian democratic front.  It’s a less subtle change on the military front where we’re also saying look we’re going to provide Pakistan with a lot of money, but most of that money needs to go to the economic sphere because we believe that is where Pakistan needs it most and it will contribute most in the long rune to security.

BELL: Hoyt says the symbolic significance of the new aid package is enormous.  $1.5 billion a year for the next five years would keep Pakistan among the top three recipients of U.S. foreign aid.  He says that should send a powerful message to the Pakistani public about Washington’s commitment.  For The World, I’m Matthew Bell.

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