Kerry-Lugar Bill: An Opportunity for Democratic Pakistan

The Kerry-Lugar Bill, presented before the Senate yesterday, seeks to apply the Afghanistan prescription suggested in Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea to Pakistan. The very title of the book is a suggestion on the best strategy to be pursued in Afghanistan: the Western style of speeding up operations doesn’t work; slowing down and building relationships would help to achieve the desired objectives. Though slowing down is not an option in Pakistan but building relationships is a viable strategy and this is what the Kerry-Lugar Bill intends to do. In the words of John Kerry, the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act (Kerry-Lugar bill) seeks to “fundamentally change America’s relationship with the people of Pakistan.”

[Photo Courtesy: Boston Globe, May 5, 2009]

The most important element of the proposed bill is the repeated reference to the ‘people of Pakistan’. U.S. commitment to the needs of Pakistani people is proposed to go beyond the fluctuating government to government relationship. The people of Pakistan cannot be punished for the inability of their Government to optimally utilize U.S. military aid to counter terrorism. The justification for reducing and conditioning military aid to Pakistan is as strong as the rationale for increasing non-military aid to the country.

The purpose of the Kerry-Lugar bill is transformational: instead of a transactional, tactically-driven set of short-term exercises in crisis-management, Kerry and Lugar aim to build a deeper, broader, long-term strategic engagement with the people (and not just the leaders) of Pakistan. A premise underlying the Kerry-Lugar approach is a simple thought-exercise: Following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the United States devoted nearly $1 billion to relief efforts and reaped a greater reward in popular support than any amount of public diplomacy could generate.

Key provisions of the bill include:
1. Foreign assistance is tripled to $1.5 billion per year—as a long-term pledge to the people of Pakistan.  Authorizes $7.5 billion over the next 5 years ($1.5 billion annually for FY 2009 –2013) that is intended to emphasize economic growth and development, and advocates an additional $7.5 billion over the subsequent 5 years.
2. Military and non-military aid is de-linked.  Level of security aid is to be determined on a year- by-year basis
3. Military assistance will be subject to certification that the Pakistani security forces are:
a. Making concerted efforts to prevent al Qaeda and associated terrorist groups from operating in the territory of Pakistan;
b. Making concerted efforts to prevent the Taliban from using the territory of Pakistan as a sanctuary from which to launch attacks within Afghanistan; and
c. Are not materially interfering in the political or judicial processes of Pakistan.
4. Detailed Pakistan Assistance Strategy requires the President to submit to Congress a detailed report outlining United States policy and a strategic plan with respect to assistance to Pakistan.
5. The non-security assistance is intended to be used for projects that benefit the people of Pakistan:
a. Just and democratic governance, including police reform, equipping and training ; independent judicial systems; political pluralism and rule of law; respect for human rights and promotion of independent media; transparency and accountability of government; anticorruption efforts; and countering the drug trade.
b. Economic freedom, including sustainable economic growth and sustainable use of natural resources; investments in energy and water; employment generation; and worker rights.
c. Investment in people, particularly women and children, including broad-based public primary and secondary education and vocational training; food security and agricultural development; quality public health; and higher education.
6. Regular reports from the President, Secretary of State and Department of Defense would help to assess the aid strategy (military and non-military) and auditing oversight would be strengthened to avoid duplication and optimize aid utilization.

The Kerry-Lugar bill is an expression of America’s renewed commitment to the future of Pakistan; it now for the people of Pakistan to ensure responsibility and accountability from their democratic government to fully realize the value of the American gesture. Pledges of the Kerry-Lugar bill can only be realized in democratic Pakistan and the recent display of people’s power in Pakistan stimulates hope for the success of the new people-oriented strategy. Once the Kerry-Lugar bill moves through the Capitol and receives Presidential assent, the task for the Pakistani people gets underway. The people of Pakistan will have to realize that they alone, not the U.S., can ensure that the Government of Pakistan makes judicious use of the aid. I hope that the passage and provisions of the Kerry-Lugar bill receive as much media attention in Pakistan as the drone attacks have invited. The failure of to realize the socio-economic benefits promised through Kerry-Lugar aid plan will be a failure of Pakistani democracy and not American strategy.