Pak aid will be with strings

Pak aid will be with strings: US
Published: April 15, 2009
Pak aid will be with strings: US

WASHINGTON - Ignoring Pakistan’s demands that United States not attach conditions to a non-military aid
package, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday that the assistance would have to be with benchmarks.
“I think you would expect when the US taxpayer is providing money - assistance to a country, that we want to
make sure that we’re not only getting our money’s worth but that certain things that we care about, we want to
see that they be dealt with,” Spokesman Robert Wood told reporters at the regular news briefing.
“So we have said, we will provide and would like to provide USD 1.5 billion over a five-year period to Pakistan,
but, clearly, we want there - we are going to establish benchmarks. We want to see certain standards and goals
met,” Wood said.
“That’s something you would expect that we would - we would be willing do,” Wood said in response to a
question.
The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, is poised to introduce a bill to
massively increase non-military assistance for cash-strapped Pakistan, a key ally on the US war on terror.
Another Democrat, Congressman Howard Berman, has introduced a separate draft bill that aims to triple
economic assistance to $1.5b per year until 2013 and shore up democratic rule with conditions attached.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration Tuesday expressed disappointment over an accord signed by President
Asif Ali Zardari that allows enforcement of Sharia law in Malakand, which includes Swat region, terming it
against human rights and democracy.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the the administration believed that 'solutions involving security
in Pakistan don’t include less democracy and less human rights.
“The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in the Swat Valley goes against both of those principles.”
“We are disappointed the Parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human
rights.”