US Senators and officials favour benchmarks in aid to Pak

I / Washington April 29, 2009, 12:41 IST

Leading American Senators and US officials today agreed that the proposed aid for Pakistan, pending before the Congress, should clearly include benchmarks.  

"Yes, sir, they should," Wallace Gregson, who has been nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said in response to a question during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  And these benchmarks should be in writing said Senator John McCain, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It was McCain who insisted during the hearing that benchmarks should be included in the legislation which would approve aid to Pakistan.  

"What if the Pakistanis don't meet those benchmarks," McCain asked. "If Pakistanis don't meet those benchmarks, then our position and our posture over there and our effort becomes even more difficult," Gregson said.  

Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the proposed aid to Pakistan would be effective only if the Pakistan leadership is convinced that their enemy number one is not India, but the extremist elements within the country.  

"This assistance can only be effective if Pakistan's leadership at all levels comes to believe that violent extremists in Pakistan pose the greatest threat to Pakistan's survival, not India," he said.

"Otherwise the United States is simply going to pouring money without the Government of Pakistan understanding or agreeing that its principal threat is the threat of extremists," Levin said.  

"We would be perceived as trying to buy their support for our goals rather than supporting Pakistan in their efforts to confront the existential threat to Pakistan represented by those extremists," he said.  Gregson agreed with Levin.

"They need to recognize that the extremism is an existential threat, and the resources that we provide to Pakistan need to be directed toward alleviating that specific threat," he said.  

Observing that Pakistan and India have had difficult relations, he said: "We need to work with Pakistan, India and with other countries across the region to decrease any of the tensions that distract from our effort against the extremists."