The United States denied reports that Secretary of State John Kerry has issued any certificate to the Congress on the progress made by Pakistan in acting against terror groups.
The US State Department has neither made any recent notification to the Congress under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill for release of American aid to Pakistan. It was way back in 2013 that the State Department had notified the Congress about disbursement of aid to Pakistan and for this the Secretary of State had used the “national interest waiver” and not the certification requirement.
In fact, no aid has been disbursed to Pakistan under the Kerry-Luger-Berman in recent past, US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said. However, she quickly added that there are a number of ways under which the US provides financial aid to Pakistan.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said India does not believe that Pakistan was making significant efforts against terror groups. “How the government of the United States decides to spend US taxpayers’ money is totally its prerogative. However, India does not believe that Pakistan is showing either sustained commitment, or making significant effort or ceasing support or dismantling bases of operations of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Haqqani network and quite possibly, the al-Qaeda,” he said.
“Congress has not been notified of the request. Congress has not approved of any request (of aid to Pakistan under Kerry Lugar Berman Bill),” Psaki said.
In the past, the “national interest waiver” has been used to provide Congressional-mandated aid to Pakistan, she said, adding that no certification has been issued with regard to progress made by Pakistan in taking action against terrorist networks.
“A (national interest) waiver was used instead of certification (in 2013),” Psaki.
Not issuing certificate to Congress on Pakistan’s counter-terrorism measures, she noted, does not mean that progress has not been made. She was responding to questions about reports that Kerry has issued a certification to Pakistan on its counter-terrorism measures ahead of his Islamabad visit next week.
