Bush Authorized to Lift Sanctions on Pakistan
Rewarding Pakistan for cooperating with the U.S. campaign against
terrorism, President George W. Bush signed a bill on October 27
that grants him the authority to waive for two years prohibitions
on major military sales and economic assistance to Pakistan.
Passed by the Senate October 4 and by the House less than two weeks
later, the law gives the president the power to waive sanctions
if a waiver would help facilitate Pakistan’s transition to
democracy and assist U.S. efforts to “respond to, deter, or
prevent” acts of international terrorism.
Specifically, the law grants exemptions to sanctions imposed for
Pakistan’s October 1999 military coup and for defaulting on
U.S. loans. It also removes a 45-day congressional notification
requirement before the president can waive sanctions imposed for
the transfer or receipt of missile technology.
In September, Bush waived sanctions barring U.S. economic and military
assistance that were imposed on Pakistan for its development and
testing of nuclear weapons. However, remaining coup and loan sanctions
still blocked most of this assistance. (See ACT,
October 2001.)
By waiving the coup and loan sanctions, the law frees Pakistan
of most U.S. military and all U.S. economic sanctions for the first
time since 1990, when Washington levied sanctions against Pakistan
for its development of nuclear weapons. Up to that point, Washington
had been one of Pakistan’s principal suppliers of military
equipment, including F-16 fighters.
Commending Pakistan for making the difficult choice of aligning
itself with Washington, in October 16 remarks Representative Doug
Bereuter (R-NE), a senior member of both the House Intelligence
and International Relations committees, emphasized that the law
“provides President Bush with the tools he needs to encourage
Pakistan’s continued participation in United States’ efforts
to combat terrorism.”
However, Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY), a longtime supporter
of India and a senior member of the International Relations Committee,
expressed concern about the impact of the law during a brief October
16 floor debate. Citing “serious reservations” in his
support for the law, Ackerman noted that the waiver “opens
the door to a significant new arms relationship with Pakistan.”
The congressman also contended that any arms sold to Islamabad
by Washington are “likely to be used” against India and
held that “the message from this waiver must not be that democracy
is no longer important” but rather that “we must continue
to urge Pakistan to return to democracy as soon as possible.”
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