Obama Signs Huge Pakistan Aid Package Into Law

Obama signs huge Pakistan aid package into law

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Obama_s..._10152009.html

Published: Thursday October 15, 2009

US President Barack Obama signed a 7.5 billion dollar aid package for Pakistan into law Thursday, after Congress offered assurances the plan did not violate Pakistani sovereignty.

Obama's move followed days of drama over the package, which saw Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi rush to Washington after opposition erupted in Islamabad to conditions of the bill.

The powerful military establishment had balked at calls on Pakistan to fight Islamic extremists.

Fears for the package's future were quelled when Senator John Kerry and Representative Howard Berman, who head the committees handling foreign relations in Congress, gave Qureshi a document stating that the plan did not impose conditions or infringe on Pakistani sovereignty.

"This law is the tangible manifestation of broad support for Pakistan in the US, as evidenced by its bipartisan, bicameral, unanimous passage in Congress," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Gibbs said that the new law was based on a shared commitment to improving living conditions in Pakistan, strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and combating extremism that threatens both Pakistan and the United States.

Obama signed the bill hours after militants unleashed coordinated attacks on Pakistani police in which 40 people died on Thursday, storming offices in Lahore and bombing a northwest station to escalate 11 days of carnage.