US Congress panel freezes $700m worth of Pakistan aid

[Ringel05]

A US Congressional panel has frozen $700m (£450m) in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances it is tackling the spread of homemade bombs in the region.

BBC News - US Congress panel freezes $700m worth of Pakistan aid

 

[High_Gravity]

As long as we are in Afghanistan we are going to need the Pakistanis, I can't wait until we wrap things up so we can stop dealing with these bastards altogether.

 

[Ringel05]

As long as we are in Afghanistan we are going to need the Pakistanis, I can't wait until we wrap things up so we can stop dealing with these bastards altogether.

Yeah, unfortunately.

 

[waltky]

And we wonder why they keep playin' us like a fiddle...

Pak fears economic isolation as relations with US sour
Jan 6, 2012: Pakistan's deteriorating relations with the United States may bring it international isolation on the economic front, Pakistan's finance minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Friday told the parliamentary committee tasked by the government to review bilateral terms with the US.

Pakistan-US relations steadily declined in the beginning of 2011 after CIA contractor Raymond Davis killed two Pakistani nationals in Lahore. This was followed by the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in May. The NATO-ISAF incursion in November in the Mohmand tribal region which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers brought the ties to an all-time low with Islamabad freezing the visa regime and transit facilities and the US freezing the military aid to Pakistan.

"There are some shocks Pakistan can absorb but there are others it can't," Abdul Hafeez Sheikh was quoted as telling members of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS). "A single incident must not determine our relations with the US," Sheikh said while referring to the steps taken by the government following the Nato aerial strikes. "Any decision should be taken while keeping in mind the multidimensional paradigm of security, prosperity of the country and economic diplomacy," he said.

Briefing the members of PCNS, Sheikh warned that Washington might use its influence over international financial institutions to hurt the country's economic interests. "It is not about American aid but its clout over the IMF, World Bank and other financial institutions that can pose a real challenge for us." Shiekh briefed the 17-member committee in detail about the possible implications the country may face in the event of a move to pull out of the US alliance. The committee recently said that the basis of the new relationship should be conditional on the agreement to transfer civil nuclear technology to Pakistan.

The committee has finalised the draft recommendations and forwarded them to the defence and foreign ministries for their input. The government will then present the committee's proposals before a joint session of Parliament to seek its approval. The joint sitting is expected to be convened in mid-January. The review is being closely watched by local and international observers since it is meant to reshape Pakistan's relations with the US and more significantly have a major impact on the Afghan endgame.

Source

See also:

F-16 supply to Pakistan to continue, says US
Jan 5, 2012 WASHINGTON: Despite all the hissing and spitting from both sides in course of a deteriorating bilateral relationship, the Obama administration has clarified that the United States is continuing to supply new F-16s to Pakistan and upgrading the existing fleet.

"Some media have reported a stoppage in the US-Pakistan F-16 program. These reports are not accurate. Neither Pakistan nor the United States has cancelled the F-16 program," a US official said on Thursday, contesting some of the virulent anti-US grievances published in the Pakistani press. The official maintained that planned delivery of the last "new-buy" F-16 purchased by Pakistan is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan from the United States in late January, 2012. Several other F-16s purchased by Pakistan from the United States are undergoing mid-life upgrades and will arrive in Pakistan beginning in late January, he said, adding that deliveries will continue throughout this year and next.

The American assurance, mainly at the political level, came despite growing antipathy in the US military towards Pakistan for its alleged perfidy in the war on terrorism. The situation has been aggravated by the U.S hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden outside a Pakistani military cantonment in Abbottabad (which Pakistan perceived as a hostile act) and the recent border incident in which Nato troops killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, following which the Pakistani military has threatened to shoot down any US intrusion -- mainly with US supplied hardware.

This possibility -- of American military aid being used against US troops -- moved a decorated U.S marine to file a lawsuit, but the Obama administration appears unfazed by the prospect. As it is, there is a strong anti-American narrative in Pakistan where it concerns F16s (which Pakistanis see as a symbol of their military virility) because of the past history of Washington withholding supplies as part of nuclear-related sanctions. Evidently, Washington does not want to aggravate the mood just now.

This narrative of false grievance persists, with official Pakistani encouragement, despite experts pointing out that Islamabad knew full well it would be sanctioned if it crossed the nuclear threshold. The Clinton administration later reimbursed Pakistan for the stalled f-16, before its successor Bush regime agreed to resume supplies and also compensated with billions of dollars in military aid after 9/11. Arguments by US analysts and protests by New Delhi that the F-16 was not useful in the fight against terrorism and was mainly a weapon against India (besides the potential of biting the US itself) has not impressed Washington mandarins constantly striving to appease Pakistan.

Source

 

[JStone]

But, it was halal that the pakis protected bin laden their holy warrior?