21st Century Version of Pressler Amendment Approved

United States has announced that it has imposes limits on the aid provided to Pakistan. United States’ House Appropriations Committee has given approval to put limits on the aid provided to Pakistan. This new bill will allow US government to withhold around 75 per cent of the promised aid.

While such amendment are aimed at providing the Congress with greater power to review the aid to Pakistan, it will also send negative signals to Pakistan where the popular believe is that history of last Afghan war is repeating itself and US is leaving Pakistan.

Pakistanis believe that after the end of the Cold War, United States used a similar bill called Pressler Amendment to withheld $1.2 billion worth of defense equipment purchased by the government of Pakistan prior to 1990.

One consequence of the Pressler Amendment was United States' refusal to provide Pakistan air force with 28 F-16 A/B Blcok 15 which were already paid for.

Since the start of this new relationship, large majority of Pakistanis were predicting that this day will come and United States will once again cut the aid as it leaves the Afghanistan.

While suspension of the aid might not come immediately this bill will certainly aid the efforts of the lobbies which think that United States is not looking for long term relationship with Pakistan and Pakistani government should stop following the US decisions blindly.