A senior Republican lawmaker has demanded that the Obama administration cut its aid to Pakistan at a time when the US military and other departments are facing resource crunch under the impact of sequestration.
“It’s time, Mr Speaker, to sequester Pakistan,” said Texas Congressman Ted Poe, who termed Pakistan a country full of hatred for America and a place where “they do not respect the human rights of religious minorities”.
“Why are we funding education programmes for our Benedict Arnold ally when we can’t fund — or don’t fund — the education for our militaryIJ” Poe said on the House floor. “And to Pakistan of all places, where hatred for America is at its highest. Washington should watch its spending and prioritise.”
“Mr Speaker, Pakistan takes our money but they do not respect the human rights of religious minorities. Some radical Muslims believe that other religions should be tolerant of their faith, but they are not tolerant of Christians and other Muslim sects,” Poe said noting that since the sequester, the Obama administration has approved $37 million in foreign aid to Pakistan.
Separately, another senior Congressman Dana Rohrabacher attacked Pakistan as the source of many of the US’s problems in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan has declared itself an enemy of the United States,” the California Republican charged, saying: “We have now an ally in India and an enemy in Pakistan.”
“Things have changed in the last 20 years. Pakistan is no longer our ally and India is no longer an ally of the Soviet Union,” he said.
“Nobody, but an enemy would take the murderer, a terrorist who slaughter 3,000 people and give him safe haven and then arrest the man who helped us bring justice to that murderer,” he said, referring to Pakistan’s detention of Shakil Faridi, a doctor who had helped the CIA to locate Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden.