US may resume aid to Pak amidst anti-India lobbying

As 10 Congressmen intensified their lobbying to deny aid to India, the Senate on Wednesday passed a pro-Pakistan amendment by a voice vote.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defence Secretary William Cohen have extended full support to the amendment despite Islamabad's nuclear and missile programmes which have always been a cause of concern for the United States.

The amendment seeks to resume, though in a limited way, economic aid to Pakistan and military training to its officers.

Copies of the letters of the two members of President Bill Clinton's Cabinet were placed on the record of the Senate by Tom Harkins (Democrat) who moved the amendment.

Democratic Senator John Glenn opposed the resumption of US economic and military cooperation to Pakistan after a gap of seven years saying ''it is suggestive of a weakening of America's resolve to pursue vigorously its key non-proliferation goals''.

In October 1990, under the Pressler law, then president George Bush banned economic and military aid to Pakistan in protest against the latter's nuclear weapons programmes.

According to observers, the Harkins amendment sought to weaken the Pressler law which specifically deals with Pakistan's proliferation activities.

They say a similar attempt was made in 1995 through the Brown amendment which paved the way for the return of the embargoed arms to Pakistan.

Glenn, in his speech on the Harkins amendment, said, ''Today, we loosen sanctions on Pakistan despite its ongoing nuclear and missile programme. Where will this process lead tomorrow?''

Meanwhile, 10 Congressmen are lobbying hard for an amendment which seeks to deny India the additional 4.7 million dollars it requested from the United States Development Aid for fiscal 1998.

This is to protest New Delhi's alleged failure in preventing human rights violations.

The amendment, expected to be introduced by Republican Congressman Dan Burton next week, seeks to limit the US aid to the current year's 342 million dollars.

"An increase in the aid will be difficult to justify to the American people, who send their hard-earned tax dollars to a country that shares none of our most cherished values,'' the Congressmen claimed in a joint letter, signed, among others, by House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon and House Panel on Asia-Pacific Vice-Chairman Peter King.

In another appeal, Republican Congressman Wally Herger sought support for his amendment denying American development assistance to countries which voted against the US on more than 50 per cent occasions in the United Nations.

He said the US gave 933 million dollars to such countries including India last year.

''As concerned members of Congress, we believe the United States should link trade and economic cooperation with human rights,'' Herger said.

UNI