Voicing concern over reports of collusion between some elements of Pakistan intelligence and Taliban, US lawmakers have demanded that all aid to Islamabad be made conditional to the country's performance against terrorists.
The lawmakers comments came as the Senate restored $4 billion International Affairs Budget, as part of the annual budget for the fiscal 2010. A substantial part of this sum would go to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"The $4 billion will make it possible for the Administration to pursue critical foreign policy and national security objectives—including increasing foreign aid to vital programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"It would make possible rebuilding the diplomatic and development capacity of the Department of State and USAID; and providing life-saving treatment for people with HIV/ AIDS," Senator John Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a late night statement after the budget was passed.
"This is a victory for an American foreign policy that keeps our commitments in a dangerous world and evidence that America will not walk away from our global responsibilities," Kerry, who introduced an amendment to the budget for this restoration, said.
Doubting the intentions of Pakistan's establishment to take head-on the terrorists, two powerful Senators Carl Levin and Susan M Collins, told the PBS news that before US provided aid to Pakistan it should determine whether Islamabad's goals are the same as Washington's in terms of fighting extremists.
Levin, a Democrat and Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and Collins expressed concern about reports that members of Pakistan's ISI are actually helping the Taliban in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
"This is a threat not just to our security and to the security of Afghanistan and the entire region; it is a threat to the very existence of the Pakistani government. So that government needs to make a firm choice. And I am willing to give them lots of aid if they make the right choice," Collins said.
One of the great threats to Afghanistan, Levin said, "is an open border with Pakistan and Pakistan's unwillingness or inability to stop the religious fanatics—the religious extremists—who crossed that border from Pakistan into Afghanistan".
"That is causing a great deal of problems in Afghanistan. Frankly, I don't have a lot of confidence that the Pakistan government is willing to stop that flow of those religious extremists across that border down in the south," he said.
Earlier, members of the House Armed Services Committee asked top army and defense officials testifying before them, over whether the Administration has a mechanism to ensure that more than USD 10 billion being given to Pakistan in the next five years does not end up the way it did during the Bush Administration.
Post-9/11, the Bush Administration gave more than $10 billion to Pakistan as aid to fight against terrorism. US lawmakers charged that the money was wasted by the Pakistani establishment and no one was held accountable for this waste.
This strategy must have accountability, insisted Congressman Ike Skelton, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"As Congress and the American people are being asked to put up a significant amount of resources over a sustained period, so there must be accountability and there must be a measurable return on this investment," he argued.
Testifying before the committee were General David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command; Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Admiral Eric Olson, Commander of the US Special Operations Command.
Responding to the lawmakers concerns, Flournoy said: "In addition to us stepping up and making a commitment to Pakistan, we also do need to follow up to ensure that their performance is meeting our common objectives as well".
