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| US not to review KLB but will address concerns |
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Qureshi meets Kerry, Holbrooke; conveys Pakistan’s concerns
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers and the Obama administration sought on Tuesday to allay Pakistani concerns over conditions tied to the Kerry-Lugar Bill, but made it clear that the legislation would not be changed.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, who co-sponsored the aid bill, sought to soothe anger in Pakistan over the proposed multibillion-dollar US aid package, saying lawmakers would prepare an explanatory statement to accompany the bill for President Barack Obama’s signature into law. The statement would “set the record absolutely straight” and correct misinterpretations about the bill, Kerry told reporters after his meeting with Qureshi.
“The bill doesn’t have to be changed,” Kerry said. “If there is a misinterpretation, it simply has to be clarified.” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is here to convey Pakistan’s concerns over the US aid bill. The FM pressed lawmakers and the Obama administration for the assurances just a week after he was in Washington praising the aid package.
Qureshi said he wanted Congress to address worries about the bill compromising Pakistan’s sovereignty. “We are a democracy,’’ he said, explaining an intense debate in Pakistan’s parliament about the intent of the bill. “We are going to work on it collectively to give it the correct interpretation,” Qureshi said.
However, Kerry said nothing in the bill impinges on Pakistan’s sovereignty, and no conditions are attached to the non-military aid. The conditions on certain types of military aid, he said, do not require anything of Pakistan not already stated as goals by the government and opposition.
“There certainly is no intent to micromanage,” Kerry said. “We’re going to clarify this.” Kerry suggested that the explanatory statement could be agreed upon by Wednesday. “The foreign minister could not have been more clear about that concern and so we will reach even further in the course of the next 24 hours to make certain we address those concerns,” he said.
Congressional staff members said it was unclear when Obama would sign the bill. In the House of Representatives, a spokesman for one of the appropriations subcommittees made clear the aid would be subject to annual review.
“The amount and type of assistance Pakistan receives will continue to be determined on a yearly basis by the performance of the Pakistanis in fighting al Qaeda, strict accountability of funding, and the fiscal realities facing our nation,” said Matt Dennis, a spokeswoman for Rep Nita Lowey, chair of the State and Foreign Operations appropriations subcommittee.
While denying that any condition was attached to the bill, Kerry said: “There are strict measures of financial credibility that Congress imposes on the US executive branch to make sure money is being spent the way Congress intends,” he said.
Kerry, who pointed out that the United States was devoting the money despite a difficult domestic economy, suggested that some players in Pakistan had wilfully misinterpreted US intentions.“I think people in the United States ought to be thrilled by the fact that a vigorous democracy is debating,” he said.
“There is nothing unusual about someone interpreting something in a particular way for some particular political reason,” he said, citing ongoing US deliberations on health care reform as another example.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and discussed Pakistan’s concerns over certain provisions of the Kerry-Lugar Bill. Qureshi said he was in Washington with a clear mandate to convey Pakistan’s perspective to the US officials.
“I am meeting all of them to give the perspective of Pakistan and its parliament,” Qureshi said in his brief remarks after his “frank and open” discussions with Holbrooke. ñAgenciesWhite House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. president saw the legislation as an important step forward and planned to sign the bill into law “soon.” He did not specify when.
“I think the opponents of this bill ... are misinformed or are characterizing this in a different way for their own political purposes,” Gibbs told reporters.State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said Pakistan’s debate over the bill is healthy. “We’re going to help the foreign minister answer the questions that have been raised in this debate,’’ Crowley said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
