KL Bill explanatory note 'old wine in new bottle'

Washington, Oct.15 (ANI): The United States has attached a separate memo with the Kerry Lugar Bill to clarify the conditions mentioned in the legislation, however, the new document too mentions that Pakistan must prevent its soil from being used by militants to launch a terror attack on other countries.

The language of the explanatory note appeared to be watered down from the initial conditionalities, but a minute observation of the note clarifies that the US' intent remains the same.

The US Congress, while attaching the memo had stressed that Washington has no intentions to micromanage Pakistani affairs, nor does it want to impugn its sovereignty and national security, nevertheless, the text of the added note explains that the Obama administration's concerns over Pakistan's covert support to terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and nuclear proliferation remains the same.

The section 201(1) of the memo 'Purposes of Assistance' states that the US would keep on working with Islamabad to prevent the use of its soil against other countries.

The section also states that US would continue to:

support Pakistan's paramount national security need to fight and win the ongoing counterinsurgency within its borders in accordance with its national security interests; work with the Government of Pakistan to improve Pakistan's border security and control and help prevent any Pakistani territory from being used as a base or conduit for terrorist attacks in Pakistan, or elsewhere; work in close cooperation with the Government of Pakistan to coordinate action against extremist and terrorist targets; and help strengthen the institutions of democratic governance.

The Section 301 'Strategy Reports' requires three reports from the US executive branch that detail a plan for how US assistance to Pakistan will be spent and evaluated, and a regional security plan for how the United States can best work with its partners for "effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts." (ANI)