US military aid to Pakistan suspended six times since 1954

LAHORE: There have been six instances during the last 55 years since 1954, when the US military aid to Pakistan was suspended by Washington under one pretext or the other, though strings were attached nearly every other time Islamabad found funding parked under this head in its coffers.

Though the US was one of the first countries to recognise Pakistan as an independent state in 1947, it took Washington some seven years to dish out its first military assistance to Islamabad during the Dwight Eisenhower regime. On May 19, 1954, the ‘Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement’ between the two nations was inked in Karachi.

This pact was helped vastly by the refusal of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan to visit Moscow in 1950. Liaquat Ali Khan had toured the US instead to the sheer delight of the Americans, resulting in the arrival of nearly $700 million military aid to Pakistan between 1954 and 1964. The military aid was dished out in addition to the $2.5 billion given to Pakistan as economic aid.

Hence, if the widely-expected curbs are imposed on the forthcoming $680 million US military aid to Islamabad, this would not be anything new for the Pakistan Army equipped today with not fewer than 66 Infantry Brigades, 15 Armoured Brigades, 30 Artillery Brigades, eight Air Defence Brigades and 17 Army Aviation Squadrons organised under 19 Division Headquarters and 9 Corps Headquarters, making it the world’s 8th largest armed force.

Here follows the chronology of six US military aid suspensions:

1) The first time when the US suspended its military aid to Pakistan was during the 1965 Pak-India War. Even though the United States suspended military assistance to both the neighbours at daggers drawn with each other, the suspension of aid affected Pakistan much more adversely. Gradually, relations improved and arms sales to Pakistan were renewed in 1975. It is noteworthy that between 1954-1965, Pakistan had managed to receive $50 million in military grants, $19 million in defence support assistance and $5 million in cash or commercial purchases.

2) During the 1971 Pakistan-India War, the US again suspended its military aid to Pakistan, the second time in just six years. In 1972, US President Nixon visited China for the first time, marking the beginning of a process of normalisation of the estranged Sino-American relations. Since the historic visit was facilitated by Pakistan, the US resumed limited financial aid to Pakistan as a ‘reward.’

3) In April 1979, the United States cut off its military assistance to Pakistan, except food assistance, as required under the Symington Amendment. This time the suspension resulted due to Washington’s concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear programme. It is pertinent to note that during this period, Pakistan had managed to construct a uranium enrichment facility.

In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The US offered $400 million worth of military aid, which was however rejected by Pakistan as inadequate. In 1981, the US again offered a package of military aid worth $1.5 billion, which was accepted. During the five years that followed after the influx of this aid, the US provided 40 F-16 fighters, 100 M-48 tanks, 64 M-109 155 mm SP howitzers, 40 M-110 203mm SP howitzers, 75 towed howitzers and 1,005 TOW anti-tank missile system, all of which enhanced Pakistan’s defence capability substantially. The aid rose from around $60 million in economic and development assistance in 1979 to more than $600 million a year in the mid-1980s. In total, the United States gave $2.19 billion in military assistance from 1980 till 1990. The military aid was in addition to the $3.1 billion economic assistance for Pakistan.

4) As soon as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1990, US military aid was again suspended under the provisions of the Pressler Amendment. The US imposed curbs on all economic and military aid to Pakistan. The Larry Pressler-proposed Amendment required the then US president to certify to the Congress that Pakistan did not possess nuclear weapons. However, in 1995, the Brown Amendment authorised a one-time delivery of US military equipment worth $368 million. However, no fewer than 28 F-16 aircraft costing $658 million were not delivered to Pakistan, despite the fact that Islamabad had paid for them well in advance.

5) The Pak-US relations underwent a severe blow with Pakistan’s nuclear tests and the ensuing sanctions in 1998. A presidential visit scheduled for the first quarter of 1998 was postponed and, under the Glenn Amendment, sanctions restricted the provision of credits, military sales, economic assistance and loans to Pakistan.

6) The ouster of premier Nawaz Sharif in 1999 in a military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf gave the US government another reason to invoke fresh sanctions under Section 508 of the Foreign Appropriations Act, which included restrictions on foreign military financing and economic assistance. The assistance was thus restricted to refugee and counter-narcotics assistance only. Aid to Pakistan dropped dramatically from 1991 to 2000 to a paltry $429 million in economic funding and $5.2 million in military assistance.

Following are the major incidents that have marred the Pak-US ties:

a) Several incidents of violence against American officials and the US diplomats stationed in Pakistan turned the relationship sour. In November 1979, rumours that the United States had participated in the seizure of the Masjid Al-Haram, the Grand Mosque in Makkah, provoked a mob to attack the US Embassy in Islamabad. The Chancery was set ablaze, resulting in a loss of life.

b) In 1989, an attack on the American Center in Islamabad resulted in the killing of six Pakistanis in crossfire with the police.

c) In March 1995, two American employees of the US Consulate in Karachi were killed and one wounded in an attack.

d) In November 1997, four US businessmen were brutally murdered while being driven to work in Karachi.

e) Pakistan tested its nukes on May 28, 1998 in retaliation to the Indian nuclear tests conducted a fortnight earlier. This proved a major setback for the never-so-exemplary Pak-US ties.

f) In March 2002, a suicide attacker detonated explosives in a church in Islamabad, killing two Americans associated with the Embassy.

g) Unsuccessful attacks by terrorists on the Consulate General in Karachi in May 2002 also heightened the Pak-US diplomatic tension.

h) Another bomb detonated near American and other businesses in Karachi in November 2005, killing three people and wounding 15 others.

i) On March 2, 2006, a suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives near a vehicle carrying an American Foreign Service officer to the US Consulate Karachi. The diplomat, the Consulate’s locally employed driver and three other people were killed in the blast, while 52 others were wounded.

j) In September 2008, an explosives-laden truck exploded at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel, allegedly killing US Embassy personnel.