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Bush waives law to fund Pakistan

By admin | March 26, 2008

Pakistan is set to receive millions of dollars from the US to fight terrorism this year, the White House has said, soon after a new government took power in Islamabad.

George Bush, US president, has exempted Pakistan from a law that restricts funding countries where the legitimate head of state was deposed by a military coup, as in Pakistan.

The White House said on Tuesday that Bush had asked the US congress for about $300m for security assistance in Pakistan.

Bush has granted Pakistan, a major US ally, a waiver on the law since 2003 despite Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president, taking power by force in 1999.

Strategic role

Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said the Bush administration was concerned about the human rights situation in Pakistan but said it had a strategic role to play.

“The Pakistani government is conducting military, police, and intelligence operations to fight terrorist groups on Pakistani soil and bring terrorists to justice,” Johndroe said.
The White House announcement came as Musharraf swore in Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s new prime minister.

Gilani, a key aide of assassinated political leader Benazir Bhutto, was selected by parliament on Monday.

He is a member of a coalition that won the general elections last month and which has indicated it will review Musharraf’s co-operation with Washington.

Johndroe said the US has “concerns about respect for fundamental civil and political rights in Pakistan,” referring to a state of emergency imposed in November and the suspension of the country’s constitution.

But he said Musharraf had “kept his commitments” to step down as Pakistan’s military chief and be sworn in as a civilian president, as well as to lift the state of emergency.

He also said that multi-party elections had been held.

“We are currently assessing the impact of those elections on future requirements for waivers of coup-related sanctions,” Johndroe said.

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