Aid freeze

A military spending bill for 2012 being negotiated by a bipartisan budget panel of US lawmakers includes a proposal to slash aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances that it is helping to fight the spread of home-made bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

IEDs - many of them made from ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer - are among the most effective weapons used by Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

US lawmakers argue that many Afghan bombs are smuggled by militants across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

"The vast majority of the material used to make improvised explosive devices used against US forces in Afghanistan originates from two fertilizer factories inside Pakistan," Republican Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain told the US Senate last week.

A congressional research report in October said the two factories, owned by the Pakarab Fertilizers Ltd. company, have been producing over 300,000 metric tons of ammonium nitrate per year since 2004.

The United States has urged Pakistan to strictly regulate the distribution of ammonium nitrate to Afghanistan, but so far, Pakistan has only produced draft legislation on the issue.

Congressional frustration

The proposed 700 million US dollar freeze is only a small fraction of the billions in military and economic aid Pakistan receives from the United States each year. Over the last 10 years, Islamabad has been given close to 20 billion dollars in civil and military aid. Some 1.6 billion dollars in military aid alone was earmarked for Pakistan in 2011.

But the move could presage bigger cuts, as congressional calls grow in the US to penalize Pakistan for failing to act against militant groups, and, at worst, helping them, following the secret US raid on a Pakistani military town in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed.

The United States wants "assurances that Pakistan is countering improvised explosive devices in their country that are targeting our coalition forces," said Representative Howard McKeon.

There is increasing frustration in Congress with Pakistan's efforts in the war. There have been numerous proposals to make US aid to Islamabad conditional on more cooperation in fighting militants, such as the Haqqani network, which Washington believes operates out of Pakistan and battles US troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan opposed to cuts

Pakistani officials have come out strongly against aid cuts, saying they would only harden public opinion against the US.

A senior Pakistani senator warned on Tuesday that the aid freeze could hurt already strained relations.

"I don't think this is a wise move. It could hurt ties. There should instead be efforts to increase cooperation. I don't see any good coming of this," said Salim Saifullah, chairman of Pakistan's Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, also suggested pressure from the United States would hurt ties, saying Islamabad believes in "cooperative approaches."

Pakistan's fragile economy, meanwhile, is heavily dependent on agriculture, so that cutting back on fertilizer output, as the US has demanded, would hurt the farming sector.

"It means you are going to impose unrealistic terms on Pakistan," said Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for peace studies.

Author: Gregg Benzow (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Sarah Berning