Pak Army’s stance over KL Bill ‘unchanged’ India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Despite the Obama Administration’s massive efforts to allay the widespread discontent surrounding the Kerry Lugar Bill, the Pakistan Army’s stance on the controversial legislation remains unchanged. Sources said that even though the US has stitched an explanatory note with the aid, the Pakistan Army’s concerns remains the same as they were before. According to the joint explanatory statement signed by Pakistan and the US , there are no conditions attached with the civilian aid. The only requirements on this funding are financial accountability measures that Congress is imposing to ensure the assistance supports programmes that benefit the Pakistani people. Military spokesperson General Athar Abbas, however, refrained from commenting on the current stand of the armed forces over the issue, and reiterated that the Army believes in the sovereignty of parliament and would accept whatever decision it takes, The News reports. It is worth mentioning here that Senator John Kerry, one of the main sponsors of the humanitarian aid bill, had recently said that it was only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif who has reservations over the bill. When enquired about the Pakistan Army’s stance, Kerry said: “ Both the Pakistan government and the Army are on same page.” Kerry’s statement clearly suggested that the armed forces too have accepted ‘stringed’ bill, which has already been approved by President Barack Obama. 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.