US promises aid to Pakistan in $602 bn defence bill but with strings attached

WASHINGTON: The Senate voted decisively on Tuesday to approve a defense policy bill that authorizes $602 billion in military spending, of which $800 million have been kept aside for Pakistan. However there are strings attached.

Of the promised aid $300 million dollars will be given to Pakistan if it launches an operation against the Haqqani network.

On the other hand US President Obama has warned of vetoing this bill which also calls for making it more difficult to close the detention centre at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and the use of funds specially designated for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to allow the military to avoid mandatory spending limits.

If the bill is finished before November, when every member of the House and one-third of the Senate is up for re-election, a veto could prove challenging for Democrats.

Obama’s party is trying to keep the White House, and hopes to regain the Senate majority it lost in 2014, if not control of the House. But Democrats perpetually battle accusations from Republicans that they are soft on defence, a fight that could be more difficult if they block the major Pentagon policy bill.

Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said he was disappointed the bill did not include a programme that would help Afghans who are in danger because they worked for American troops to move to the United States.

“They are the number one target for the Taliban and for ISIS [Islamic State],” McCain said in the Senate after the bill passed without an amendment extending the program to provide Special Immigrant Visas for interpreters and others who worked for U.S. forces.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who had introduced the amendment, called its omission “unconscionable.” In a statement, she said, “For many of them, this could be a death sentence.”

The bill would also require young women to register for the military draft, as the Department of Defense opens all of the military, including combat roles, to females. A few conservative senators voted against the measure because of that provision.