National Defence Authorisation Act: US lawmakers adopt bill to curb aid for Pakistan

Opposition to military aid, F-16s a foreign policy failure, says Shireen Mazari

WASHINGTON: As US lawmakers look to use a defence policy bill to increase restrictions on military aid for Pakistan, experts have begun interpreting it as a “failure of foreign policy” on Islamabad’s part.

The $602 billion National Defence Authorisation Act, or NDAA, passed by the House of Representatives late Thursday, would block $450 million in aid to Islamabad, unless it does more to fight the Haqqani network, which lawmakers see as a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan.

The bill requires the Pentagon to certify that Pakistan is conducting military operations to disrupt the Haqqani network, not letting the network use North Waziristan as a safe haven and actively coordinating with Afghanistan’s government to fight the network along their border.

As they finalised the 2017 version of the annual bill, members of the House of Representatives added three amendments related to Pakistan. All passed by unanimous voice vote.

One added a fourth requirement to the release of the aid, that the administration certify Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani network senior leaders and mid-level operatives.

Another required that the Secretary of Defence certify Pakistan is not using its military or any funds or equipment provided by the United States to persecute minority groups.

And a third added a ‘sense of Congress’ that Shakil Afridi is an ‘international hero ‘and calls for his immediate release from prison.



The House version of the NDAA is not the final version of the legislation. It must be combined with a Senate bill before being sent to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign, or veto.

Experts see the bill as underlining the failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy apparatus in conveying Islamabad’s achievements in the operation against militants in its tribal areas to American legislators and convincing them about its pressing needs in carrying out such action.

They said the Congress move is part of the fallout of the Pakistan government’s ad hoc foreign policy in the absence of a foreign minister over the past three years.

“That US lawmakers are opposing military support and F-16s for Pakistan is failure on the part of the [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] government,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shireen Mazari told Express News on Friday.

“The current geopolitical situation confronting Pakistan requires crafting of an effective foreign policy,” she said. “So far, it hasn’t been evident what Pakistan’s actual foreign policy is.”

“Instead of criticising others, we need to work on our own weaknesses and craft a strong foreign policy,” she added.

However, the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi expressed hope that the Obama Administration will convince US lawmakers to give military assistance to Pakistan.

Talking to the BBC, he said Pakistan does not carry out operations against terrorism to appease any power or gain a reward; rather it is carrying out a campaign against terror to secure its own interests. He said the Senate had not blocked the aid but only made certain conditions.

“It is not our headache as to how the Obama administration convinces the Senate,” he said, adding that talks were under way in connection with the sale of F-16.

However, there is also strong criticism of Pakistan in the Senate. This month, Senator Bob Corker used his authority as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to bar the use of any US funds for Pakistan to buy American F-16 fighter jets.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2016.