WASHINGTON: US lawmakers — both in the Senate and the House of Representatives — said on Tuesday that they would support the Obama administration’s move to seek $200-400 million in emergency aid for Pakistan.
The package may be ready by the time President Asif Ali Zardari visits Washington on May 6 and 7. ‘Certainly, we are discussing with the administration what is needed, and I think that all of us are very concerned about what’s happening in Pakistan,’ Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters.
‘It may be appropriate, and I believe the administration is looking right now at … somewhere between two and four hundred million dollars for Pakistan,’ Senator Jon Kyl told the news conference.
He said the fund would be used for both counter-insurgency measures and for shoring up Pakistan’s volatile economy.
‘We could pass really quickly, in just a matter of days,’ said the senator when asked how soon this bill could be passed. Senator Kyl said he had been talking to the Obama administration about the idea, and favoured it. ‘They are working up a proposal ... I am hoping it will be in that range.’
Earlier, Congressman Hoyer also confirmed that congressional leaders were discussing with the administration the possibility of emergency aid to Pakistan.
Other US lawmakers, while talking to reporters, said they shared the Obama administration’s ‘deep worries’ about Pakistan’s stability and did not want to delay any legislative measure aimed at helping the country.
Congressman Hoyer said the measure could be voted on as early as next week but declined to give an exact date.
The money could either be viewed as a ‘down payment’ on $1.4 billion included for Pakistan in President Barack Obama’s proposed $83.4 billion war spending bill, which is on track or consideration this summer, or it may be moved separately ‘using executive branch mechanisms’.
The move for an emergency aid package for Islamabad gathered momentum in Congress after Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, met top House Democrats last week to brief them on gains by Taliban militants in the NWFP and Fata.
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