'Statement to clarify KLB without any legal standing'

NEW YORK - Dr Nasim Ashraf, a close associate of former President Pervez Musharraf and a long-time
observer of US political system, said Saturday that the joint statement made by the architects of the Kerry-Lugar
aid bill to mollify Pakistan’s concerns had no legal value.
“It (the statement) doesn’t mean anything as it doesn’t have the force of law,” Dr Ashraf, a former chairman of the
National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), said in a statement.
The joint statement was issued by Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and Congressman Howard Berman, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in the wake of the uproar in
Pakistan over some intrusive conditions set in the legislation seen as violating the country’s sovereignty.
The joint statement said that the United States will not micromanage or set conditions on the aid or impinge
Pakistan’s sovereignty. “Nothing has and can been changed,” Dr Ashraf said of the bill, which stipulates $1.5
billion in non-military aid to Pakistan over a period of five years. Last week, Gen Musharraf, appearing on the
National Public Radio (NPR) also called the bill unacceptable. In his interview hosted by noted American
journalist Ted Koppel, he said, “Conditions attached to this bill do impinge on the sovereignty of Pakistan.
No one can accept that.”
In his statement, Dr Ashraf agreed that the intention of the measure was to help Pakistan, but regretted the
language used in it. “These type of conditions have never before been attached to any Pakistan aid package
ever since US assistance started in 1951.”
“Now the ball is in Pakistan’s court; Parliament can either reject it or approve it,” Dr Ashraf said, “This is a fiasco
that will seriously come to haunt Pakistan.” Meanwhile, an American newspaper had described the conditions
attached to the Kerry-Lugar bill as a “political flap.”
“Congress had inserted accountability language into the measure that critics in Pakistan charged was American
interference in Pakistan’s internal politics,” The Washington Times said in an editorial. “The issue was smoothed
over but the controversy underscores the lack of trust with which many in Pakistan view the United States”.