The Kerry-Lugar bill: An Indian perspective

Washington: Pakistan may be happy about the fact that Washington lawmakers have finally cleared the Kerry-Lugar bill, which provides for $7.5 billion in US aid to that country till 2014, but its military establishment may have reasons to squirm over the conditions that come attached with the dole.

From left, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen speaks with chief of army staff of the Pakistan Army Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and Lieut. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director general of Inter-Services Intelligence on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln while under way in the North Arabian Sea on 27 Aug. 2008.

Amongst other stringent conditions, the bill also seeks to keep tabs on Pakistan's attempts to use terrorist outfits for attacks on neighbouring countries.

This provision seeks to directly impact Pakistani inclinations to utilise terror, or a Pakistani euphemism for the same activity - jihad.

Broadly, the conditions attached to the bill seek that the US secretary of state will certify on a six-monthly basis that Pakistan continues its efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida, the Taliban,  and other extremist and terrorist groups in the FATA and settled areas, that it continues to eliminate safe havens of such forces in Pakistan, that it continues to close terrorist camps,  including those of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, that it does not provide any support for extremist and terrorist groups  and that it ensures that it prevents attacks into neighbouring  countries from such forces.

Though the bill takes care to leave out any references to any countries in the region affected by state use of terrorism by Pakistan, such as India, Afghanistan and to a certain extent Bangladesh, Section 203 of the Senate Bill S.1707 asks the secretary of state to certify that Pakistan has made progress on matters such as "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 the United States or coalition forces in Afghanistan, or against  the territory or people of neighbouring countries."

For good measure the bill seeks oversight of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation activities through Section 203 (C) of the bill which requires the secretary of state  to certify that the government of Pakistan "is continuing to cooperate with the  United States in efforts to dismantle supplier networks relating to the  acquisition of nuclear weapons-related materials, such as providing relevant  information from or direct access to Pakistani nationals associated with such  networks."