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Approving for passage, the Pakistan Enduring Assistance and Cooperation Enhancement (PEACE) Act 2009, the House Foreign Affairs Committee also sought to bar Pakistan military or its intelligence agency from supporting any extremists and terrorist group.
It also wants Islamabad to provide "direct access to Pakistani nationals" connected with proliferation networks. The bill will now go to the floor of the House of Representatives for passage.
The Act, introduced by Howard L Berman, Chairman of the House Foreign Affair Committee on April 2, has deleted the word "India" from the original bill apparently at the suggestion of the Obama Administration because Pakistan, in particular the army and the ISI had raised strong objections to it.
Now under the newer version of the bill, the US President is required to give a determination to the Congress every year about the progress the Government of Pakistan has made with regard to "ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistan military or its intelligence agency, to extremist and terrorist groups, particularly to any group that has conducted attacks against US or coalition forces in Afghanistan, or against the territory or people of neighbouring countries."
The original bill had imposed conditions that Pakistan would not let its territory to be used for launching terrorist attacks against India and would also not support any group that indulges in terrorist activities against India.
The version of the Berman bill which was approved by the voice vote on Thursday, following about an hour of debate, replaces India with the word neighbour.
Congressional observers said this means almost the same, but word "India" had to be deleted because Obama Administration told the lawmakers that this could be counterproductive to their overall objective given the that the Pak establishment is allergic to it.
While in the original bill the US President was asked to give a presidential determination about the progress made by Pakistan in preventing cross border attacks into India, the PEACE Act passed by the House seeks presidential determination on the progress made by Islamabad in "preventing cross border attacks into neighbouring countries."
However, the bill empowers the President to waive any provision or condition in the PEACE Act in the national interest of the United States.
The PEACE Act triples US economic assistance to Pakistan to USD 1.5 billion a year, with a particular focus on strengthening democratic institutions, promoting economic development and improving Pakistan's public education system, with an emphasis on access for women and girls.
The bill also establishes a permanent Pakistan Democracy and Prosperity Fund for non-military assistance, which demonstrates America's long-term commitment to Pakistan's democratic future.
"To ensure that US assistance is truly benefiting the people of Pakistan, the legislation requires rigorous oversight and auditing. It establishes a set of principles that should govern US-Pakistan ties, including the actions that the two countries should take to maintain a robust, relevant and lasting relationship," Berman said after the passage of the PEACE Act.
The Bill also authorises military assistance to help Pakistan disrupt and defeat al-Qaeda and insurgent elements, and requires that the vast majority of such assistance be focused on critical counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism efforts.
In addition, the bill requires that all military assistance flow through the democratically elected Government of Pakistan.
The legislation also includes accountability measures for military assistance, including a requirement that the Government of Pakistan has demonstrated a sustained commitment to combating terrorist groups and has made progress towards that end.
Berman denied the charges coming from certain quarters in the Obama Administration and also from Pakistan that the bill is rigid and imposes inflexible condition.
"To ensure that the President has sufficient flexibility, we have provided a waiver if he is unable to make the determinations," Berman said.
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The starving Paki beggars are going to be fed again. Hopefully, they won't bite the hand that feeds them, as they have done, many times before.
HOW CAN A NEWPAPER LIKE THIS PUBLICISE THISHOW CAN INDIA BE SO FUNNY IN THE COMMENTSTAHTA'S WHY PROGRESS IS FAR OF US
This is no different than the US funding terrorism against India directly. The Indian Government should escalate this immediately and ask for a UN resolution condemning the US for funding terrorism against India.
We have it there again...the age old American formula for the untrustworthy Pakis! If there is incontrovertible evidence of aid being diverted to terrorists....the solution is double the aid next time! This time however, the Americans seem to have outdone themselves and have tripled aid to the Jehadis!Either the Americans want to destroy India as it exists today or they simply have not understood the extent of animosity the Pakis have towards all Indians in general and Hindus in particular.When will the Americans realise that the Pakistanis want to wipe out India from the world map?
anonymous!!!!!!!!!yea you are right, he has got same actionable intelligence, we had for IRAQ? Give us a break, we admit we were the partners creating this Monster of taliban, now we are trying to establish working relationship with pakistan to eliminate this problem aswel. And No, OBAMA never lied about pakistan, we are still using DRONES againt ALQAEDA.all i see here is Jealousy for some reason. Dont look Pakistan merely INDIAN point of view, why the rest of the world is supporting pakistan?? i mean literally whole world. GET REAL GUYS AND STOP MOANIN.
Now that MMS is again back in power he should thank the voters of this country for showing their faith in Congress yet again. This despite the FACT that after 60 years of Congress rule in this country "percentage of population living in poverty" i.e. people who live off on less than 2 US Dollars a day is 75%. We are only above countries like Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Liberia and likes. Even countries like Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are better off than us. Sonia and Manmohan are no wonder surprised at the result of this election. They hadn't expected that even if they screw the country so badly, people would still vote them back to power. I'd like to hear Sonia sycophants like Mr. Sibbal
One of Obama's planks for running in the elections was he will take on Pakistan and attack it if he has actionable intelligence , well Mr Obama you have a lot of actionable intelligence but no action. Its appalling how you are giving pakistan Billions of dollars in aid when you and your administrattion very well know that they will put this tax payer's money to sponsor terrorism, it was just the other day when your secreatary of state publicly admitted how your country has created the Mujahids, dont you have any undertsanding of foreign policy? your own citizens are suffereing from hunger,job loss,no shelter,no healthcare and you give pakistan precious tax-payers money to sponsor trrrorism? You lied in your campaign to all the people and you should resign
1. BJP has the maximum number of MPs with criminal record the the current elections. 2. Jaswant Singh personally handed over terrorists in Afganistan. (what patriotism and what hot pursuit)3. BJP's Top Politicians including Atalji, Advaniji and Modiji were worth hundreds of crore Rupees. The wealth they had accumulated while in opposition for 5 years. (what clean image). This is as per the records they have themselves submitted to the Election commision. So it is no different from Congress.
IT SHOWS WHAT DIFFERENT IT MAKES IN INTERNATIONAL FORAM WITH DEFEAT OF NATIONALSIT AND PATROTIC PARTY LIKE B.J.P AND ITS ALLY N.D.A PARTNERS.WITH FULL POWER IN THE HANDS OF ITALIN MAID, AMERICA CAN NOW MANUPILATE INDIA FOREIGN POLICY.THEY ( AMERICANS )HAVE DROP THE CLOSES WHICH WOULD HAVE BENEFITED INDIA.WHY ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? THIS SHOWS CONGRESS " GADHARS " ARE PREPARED TO SELL BHARAT MAA UNDER THE RULE OF ITALIAN MAFIA.JAI HIND