Via The Dawn, Pakistan : Move in US for curbs on arms sales to Pakistan
The US licence for military assistance and arms sales to Pakistan expires this year which explains why some lobbies on Capitol Hill have suddenly increased their efforts to impose new restrictions on Islamabad.
Congressman Frank Pallone Jr referred to this on Tuesday night when he said on the floor of the House that the administration should end the US military assistance and arms sales licensing to Pakistan in the fiscal year 2007-08. The budget for the fiscal year 2006-07 has already been approved and the new budget for 2008 will come up for hearing later this year.
The arms licence was issued in 2003 for five years.
"This measure, coupled with international pressure, would convince President Musharraf to take immediate action against Taliban militants in his country," said Mr Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat and founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans.
Question to Senator Pallone.
Did your 130,000 men and women with all high tech equipments able to quell insurgency in Iraq?
President Musharraf is doing his best to curb the militancy in the country. If US stops military assistance , it will hurt American interest in the region, and anti-terrorism campaign.
Pakistan must not be turned into a ‘scapegoat’ for Nato's troubled military operations in increasingly volatile southern Afghanistan.
Such public accusations only ‘emboldened the enemy.
Islamabad needs more help to control the mountainous border with Afghanistan.
According to Lisa Curtis of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, the effectiveness of US policy towards Pakistan over the next few years will largely determine whether the US prevails in the global war on terror.
She said although Musharraf deserved credit for apprehend hundreds of Qaeda operatives, the continued presence of the Taliban and Qaeda terrorists along the border posed a threat to American interests and the US relations with Pakistan.
She said a recent bill wanted the US to condition military aid to Pakistan was unlikely to advance its objectives and could well backfire.
Public debate on limiting US assistance to Pakistan could actually weaken Musharraf’s hand in convincing his military commanders that the US is a reliable partner. Islamabad has been most responsive in the past to targeted, hard-headed diplomacy. Only this type of tough diplomacy will persuade Islamabad that the US will remain in Afghanistan until the Taliban are defeated.