US lawmaker seeks to scale back Pakistan aid

A powerful American lawmaker has sought to scale back the US civilian aid to Pakistan unless Islamabad makes satisfactory action against the militant groups, in particular the Afghanistan-based Haqqani network. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has also sought to end US foreign assistance to countries like India, China and Brazil who are economically viable enough to maintain their own assistance programmes.
Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the powerful House Foreign affairs Committee, expressed her views in a letter to Congressmen Paul Ryan and Chris Van Hollen, who are respectively chairman and ranking member of the house committee on budget.
Ros-Lehtinen said few relationships are as complex and challenging as that between the US and Pakistan. “While there is some hope for modest improvements in the relationship this year, such gains will likely be tactical and incremental – not strategic game changers,” she wrote.
She said the Congress must be clear about its expectations for the relationship. “Absent credible steps to address longstanding United States concerns about ‘official Pakistani support’ for the activities of violent non-state actors along the Afghan border and elsewhere in the region, the majority cannot support continued assistance at current levels,” she said.
She said the Foreign Relations Authorization Act and analogous language contained in the end-year appropriations bill restrict the use of most foreign assistance authorities for Pakistan unless the Secretary of State can certify that Pakistan is cooperating with the US in efforts against the Haqqani Network and other extremist groups.
More broadly, the most recent quarterly report of the office of the inspector general (OIG) for US civilian assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan states that although Congress appropriated $1.48 billion for civilian assistance to Pakistan in FY12, only $618 million were obligated. In addition, over the last three years, $1.632 in obligated development funding (equal to 38 percent of total obligated civilian assistance since 2009) remains unspent.
Given the political and diplomatic difficulties in the US-Pakistan relationship, she said it would make more sense to scale back the pace of appropriations for civilian assistance in Pakistan, so that “such funds are used more judiciously and sustainably” over a longer period of time. “It must be noted that the government of Pakistan has repeatedly said that if the United States wants to support economic development in Pakistan, it should do so through a greater reliance on trade rather than aid policy,” she said.