Army top brass shows concern on US aid bill

Consuming a fair share of the time, top military brass of the country on Wednesday expressed its concerns over the conditions posed by the Kerry-Lugar bill to deliver the civilian aid to Pakistan by US as the Pakistan Army's Corps Commanders met here today. 

The Corp Commanders conference held at the General Headquarters with Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaque Pervez Kayani in chair. All formation commanders of the Army attended the meeting.

The deliberation on US bicameral legislation now awaits President Barack Obama's signature was on top of the agenda, while the corps commanders also discussed the progress of operation against militants in Swat and the future army offensive in South Waziristan and other tribal areas.

The National Assembly session is also underway in the capital to debate on the Kerry-Lugar bill in today’s proceedings.

The bill triples the annual US civilian economic assistance to Pakistan for the next five years.

A key English newspaper of Pakistan Tuesday reported that Pakistan Army conveyed its part of protest to the US over the language and observations in the bill on Pakistan’s military services and intelligence agencies, when Commander of International Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal met Gen Kayani at the GHQ on Tuesday

“General McChrystal returned from the GHQ with an unambiguous message that the terms set in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on the national security interests of Pakistan are insulting and are unacceptable in their present formulation,” the newspaper said in its report.

however, on the other hand Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has defended the bill, portraying it as a ‘big success’ of the democratic government.

“The passage of the Kerry-Lugar Bill is a big success of the government as it is for the first time that the United States has supported a democratic government in Pakistan instead of dictatorship,” he said while addressing a meeting of the parliamentary party of the coalition partners of the government on Tuesday.

President Asif Ali Zardari has also urged PPP leaders and ministers to vigorously respond to criticism of party and government’s policies by political adversaries.