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Pakistani American Leadership Center

July 19, 2011

The Honorable John A. Boehner

Speaker

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs

2206 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

RE: Proposed Changes to U.S. Economic Assistance to Pakistan

Dear Mr. Speaker, Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen:

As Pakistani Americans we are very concerned about the proposed changes to the Enhanced

Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 (22 U.S.C. 8412(a) more commonly known as the Kerry-

Lugar-Berman bill or KLB) being circulated and set for markup this Thursday, July 21st in the House

Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Of major concern to us are:

1. Requiring the conditions that were originally set for security assistance to also be applied toU.S. economic assistance to Pakistan; and

2. Requiring the facilitation of entry and exit visas for U.S. security and other personnel.The original KLB bill explicitly decoupled economic assistance from the volatility of the U.S.-

Pakistan security relationship: we knew there would be short-term challenges in the security

relationship but those challenges could not detract from the need to have the U.S. assist the people of

Pakistan in a way that would provide both nations with long-term security.

It is not clear that the people of Pakistan, and their democratically-elected civilian representatives,

are empowered to implement the security actions necessary to meet the newly-heightened security

conditions. Tying economic assistance that would benefit the civilian government and the people ofPakistan to an outcome they can only uncertainly influence does not make much sense.

What is certain is that Pakistan is in a very precarious economic position and desperately in need of

U.S. economic assistance in both the short and long-term. Ensuring the people of Pakistan receive

that assistance vitiates two clear U.S. interests:

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Pakistani American Leadership Center

1. It strengthens the democratically-elected civilian government by assisting them in deliveringreal services to the people of Pakistan. It also bolsters their competency and capacity toeffectively govern, thereby lessening the influence of other actors within the political space,

including the Pakistani security services which currently command a disproportionate amount

of influence on certain issues.

2. Demographically, Pakistan is heading towards massive challenges. There are as manyPakistanis under the age of 25 today as there are people in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia

combined. Unless the U.S. can help Pakistan meet the economic challenges this demographic

youth bulge will create, we can expect to see a destabilized Pakistan which will be a major

security threat to the United States and our regional interests.

On the subject of U.S. security and other personnel visas into Pakistan, the Pakistani American

community is wholly behind the objective of seeking to have the government of Pakistan facilitate

visa processing, with a reciprocal facilitation from the U.S. for Pakistani visitors. However,

legislation seems to be a particularly unwise manner in which to pursue it.

In a post-Raymond Davis environment, a legislative visa condition will be negatively perceived in

Pakistan in a way that will be counterproductive to the ongoing U.S.-Pakistan security relationship.

Indeed, we predict that if inserted, the backlash in Pakistan will be even more severe than what

occurred after the passage of the original KLB bill which required intensive U.S. diplomatic efforts

to recover from. It is our feeling that this issue is best left to private executive negotiations and notdealt with via legislation.

In conclusion, as Speaker Boehner said in May of this year, We both benefit from having a strong

bilateral relationship. This is not the time to back away from Pakistan We need more engagement,

not less. Conditioning our economic assistance on short-term security factors moves us in the wrong

direction. We ask that the two conditions mentioned above be eliminated from the new bill.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration,

Respectfully,

Taha Gaya Irfan Malik

Executive Director, PAL-C Executive Director, PAKPAC

Pakistani American Leadership Center Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee

taha@pal-c.org ph: (202) 675-2004 ed@pakpac.net ph: (202) 558-6404