PEACE Act: stringent terms on Pak

The bill was passed after replacing the word India with neighbouring countries with regard to Pakistan not allowing its soil to be used to launch terror attacks. However,given the bitter experience the US has had with Islamabad in the past,it imposes a series of tough conditions on Pakistan that would almost nullify what Pakistan Army considers as its strategic options against India namely the terror groups created by it like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad JeM.

In fact,the PEACE Act brings LeT and JeM on a par with the Taliban and al-Qaeda and considers all of them as part of the same global terrorist network. It mentions Muridke,where the JuDs headquarters is situated near Lahore,as a terrorist sanctuary,and strongly expects Pakistani intelligence agencies to break all their relationship with these terrorist networks,which so far had been promoted and supported by them against India.

Given its past experience,where the money given to it was used by Pakistan to build up its army against India,the PEACE Act mandates that at least 75 per cent of the security assistance fund would be used by Islamabad only for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations. It rules that Pakistan cannot buy F-16s through these funds as has happened during the Bush era.

The Act says one of the prime objectives of the US through this bill is to establish a counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism strategy to prevent any territory of Pakistan from being used as a base or conduit for terrorist attacks in Pakistan,or elsewhere.

The PEACE Act also mandates the US President to annually give a presidential declaration that Pakistan is continuing to cooperate with the US in efforts to dismantle supplier networks relating to the acquisition of nuclear weapons-related materials,including,as necessary,providing direct access to Pakistani nationals associated with such networks.