NADEEM MALIK: U.S. Military Assistance and Sales to Pakistan

PAKISTAN

Background

U.S. Military Assistance and Sales to Pakistan,

Pre-Sept. 11 vs. Post-Sept. 11

Pakistan was granted independence in 1947, formed from areas where Muslims constituted a majority in the former British subcontinental empire. The country has experienced a recurring pattern of political turmoil and military rule since its inception. Pakistan first experienced martial law in 1958, when it was imposed by President Iskander Mirza, who was replaced only three weeks later by Gen. Mohammad Ayub Khan, who then ruled the country during its 1965 war against India. Pakistan's military defeat in that war and disillusionment with Ayub Khan's military dictatorship led him to resign, handing power to the commander of his military, Gen. Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan. General elections held in 1970 brought to a high point the ethnic differences between West Pakistan and the Bengali province of East Pakistan; the latter became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971 when India intervened militarily to help the East gain independence from West Pakistan.

Following the secession of Bangladesh, Yahya Khan handed over leadership of Pakistan to Ayub Khan's former foreign minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who became Pakistan's first civilian chief martial law administrator. As economic stagnation led to anti-government sentiment among the population, Bhutto was removed from the presidency by the military in 1977, who re-declared martial law and installed Gen. Muhammad Zia ul-Haq at the helm of the country. Threatened by former President Bhutto's popularity as national elections approached in 1977, Zia postponed the elections and had Bhutto hanged in 1979. Zia then went on to ban all political activity and cancelled the rescheduled

CDI

elections, instead holding a referendum in 1984 on his "Islamization" policies. With his political opponents boycotting the election, the reported high levels of turnout and the 90 percent approval rating for his policies were dubious.

Four years later, however, Zia was killed in a plane crash, whereupon elections led to civilian rule; first, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (the daughter of the deposed president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), and then under Nawaz Sharif, head of the most prominent party in the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IJI), the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM). Elections in October 1993 gave the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) – founded by Benazir Bhutto's father – a majority of seats in the National Assembly, and Benazir Bhutto once again became prime minister. After the Bhutto government was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari on charges of corruption, elections in 1997 brought an overwhelming victory for the Pakistan Muslim League/Nawaz (PML/Nawaz). Nawaz Sharif took another turn as prime minister, and instituted constitutional amendments which strengthened his position vis-à-vis the presidency.

In October 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared himself Pakistan's chief executive and suspended the country's Parliament and constitution following a military-led coup that overthrew the democratically-elected Sharif government. In April 2000, Pakistan's Supreme Court sanctioned the coup and, in June 2001, Musharraf decreed himself president of Pakistan. An April 2002 referendum that passed with an alleged 97.5 percent approval extended Musharraf's presidency for another five years, but was described by independent observers as rife with fraud and coerced voting. Since then, Pakistan's government has remained highly fragmented, with fundamentalist religious factions uniting under the umbrella group, Muttahid Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), in opposition to the government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), which controls both houses of the national parliament. Musharraf's rule is considered unstable by many observers; he narrowly escaped two assassination attempts in December 2003, and his position faces challenges from powerful factions within the Pakistan army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which often sympathize with extremist groups within Pakistan that oppose the United States and Musharraf's support for the United States. In December 2002, Musharraf succeeded in passing a series of controversial constitutional revisions, known as the Legal Framework Order (LFO), which established stricter requirements for parliamentary eligibility, gave the president the authority to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve Parliament, and established the National Security Council, which institutionalizes the role of the military in the Pakistani government.

In its 2006 human rights report, the U.S. State Department classifies Pakistan's human rights record as poor, with such rights violations as extrajudicial killings, torture, and rape remaining major problems. Pakistani authorities conduct arbitrary arrests and torture persons in custody. Security forces committed over 100 extrajudicial killings in 2006, and continue to use lethal force to disperse demonstrations. The anti-terrorist courts, set up in 1997, allow police or military personnel to enter and search homes without a search warrant and to confiscate property or arms. Leading members of the judiciary, human rights groups, the press and a range of politicians have expressed reservations that the anti-terrorist courts constitute a parallel judicial system and may be used as instruments of political repression. The year was also marked by an increase in intimidation, harassment and arrest of journalists. The executive maintains a strong influence over the traditional judiciary branch as well. Corruption is widespread among the police, who have been known to detain persons as a result of personal vendettas. Police abuse is carried out with impunity and without repercussions from the government. Conditions are extremely poor in prisons, where overcrowding, malnutrition and rioting are common.

The State Department describes all elections held since 2002 as "deeply flawed" and concludes that Pakistani citizens' right to change their government is restricted. The Pakistani government restricts freedom of the press, privacy rights, freedom of assembly, religious freedom, and freedom of movement. Government security forces beat and harass journalists, and militants and religious extremists have assaulted and killed journalists, who often practice self-censorship to avoid intimidation. Discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities and women is a serious problem. Rape is a pervasive problem, and marital rape is not a crime in Pakistan. More than 1,200 cases of honor killings were documented in 2005 by human right monitors and, in certain court cases, a woman's testimony is considered to carry less weight than that of a man.

Pakistan is plagued with sectarian violence and intra-state conflict. Sunni extremists carry out targeted killings of Shia Muslims and religious minorities are frequently targeted. Although fewer people were killed in 2005 than in 2004, sectarian violence still claimed 160 lives in 2005. Terrorism has also led to numerous deaths in Pakistan, with Islamic extremist groups – many of which have been linked to al-Qaida – carrying out bomb attacks within the country against Western targets and against Pakistanis viewed as sympathetic to the United States. Terrorist groups opposed to Musharraf have become less inclined to target solely Western entities and increasingly use violence against other Pakistanis as a means to destabilize the government. The Pakistani army has stepped up operations in provinces, such as Waziristan, that border Afghanistan, as many terrorist groups and militants are believed to inhabit these areas. Violence also continues in the resource-rich province of Balochistan, where insurgents seek autonomy for their province, and a more equitable distribution of revenues from the natural resources found in their province. Baloch rebels have launched four separate insurgencies against the military-led government in Islamabad since 1947. The most recent fighting, which began in January 2005, has been marked by reports of indiscriminate bombing campaigns against Baloch civilians and kidnappings of Baloch youth by the Pakistani army, as well as bombings conducted by Baloch insurgents that have killed both Pakistani civilians and Pakistani soldiers.

In the three decades following independence, Pakistan has fought three full-scale wars with India – from 1947-49, in 1965, and in 1971 – the first two of which were fought over the disputed state of Kashmir. Pakistan currently lays claim a portion of Kashmir, known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir, home to 3 million Kashmiris, while India controls a larger portion of the state, the region of Jammu and Kashmir, home to 9 million Kashmiris. The long-standing confrontation over the disputed region dates from 1947, when Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain. Kashmir wanted to remain independent, but Pakistan argued that the territory – which is more than 60 percent Muslim – was religiously and culturally Pakistani. Pakistani tribesmen invaded Kashmir in 1947 to stake their claim to the territory, but the maharajah of Kashmir turned to India for help in executing a referendum on independence for Kashmir. The referendum never occurred and, instead, Indian troops moved into Kashmir and the ensuing conflict between Indian and Pakistani forces created the current international boundary between the two regions of Kashmir. Pakistan crossed this boundary in 1965, in an attempt to reclaim the territory, igniting the second Indo-Pakistani war.

In the late 1980s, Muslim separatist groups began a violent insurgency against Indian rule of Jammu and Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of providing support for these groups, which has made relations between the two countries even more tense. Tensions in Kashmir elevated to a crisis state in 1999 when Pakistan-backed forces intruded into Indian-held territory near Kargil, nearly causing the outbreak of another full-scale war. Indian-Pakistani tensions also heightened following an attack on

the Indian Parliament in December 2001, after which India to accused Pakistan of failing to rein in the activities of terrorist groups operating within Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

In 2004, Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began peace negotiations in order to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir (among other contentious issues) and, in May 2005, both sides declared the peace process "irreversible." The bombing attack on the Mumbai subway in July 2006, which India alleged was carried out by militant groups operating within Pakistan and possibly involved the assistance of Pakistani intelligence, derailed the negotiations for a number of months. However, Singh and Musharraf met again in September 2006 in Cuba, where they renewed their commitment to pursuing options for Kashmir. Musharraf has stated that he will relinquish his claim to Indian-administered Kashmir if India supports his proposals for limited self-government for Kashmir and a phased troop withdrawal, with the boundaries remaining as they stand now. India wants Pakistan to bring pressure onto the militant groups operating in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and conducting attacks in India and Indian-administered Kashmir. However, no deal has been finalized, militants continue to operate freely in the region, and security forces from both sides continue to operate with impunity, denoting that the issue, although closer to resolution than before, is still far from resolved.

U.S. Military Assistance Prior to Sept. 11, 2001

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter applied sanctions under the Symington amendment to Pakistan for its construction of a uranium enrichment plant outside of international regulations. These sanctions were circumvented via presidential waiver between fiscal year 1982 (FY 82) and FY 90 and, during this time, the United States sent billions of dollars in military assistance to Pakistan in order to bolster the Afghan mujaheddin vis-à-vis the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. However, U.S. military assistance to Pakistan was curtailed in FY 90 under the Pressler amendment, due to the progression of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. In 1998, President Bill Clinton imposed further sanctions on U.S. assistance under the Glenn amendment after Pakistan exploded nuclear devices (similar sanctions were also imposed on India).

Despite these layers of sanctions, Pakistan still purchased sizable amounts of U.S. weaponry prior to Sept. 11, 2001. Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) totaled more than $150 million between FY 90 and FY 01, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) totaled more than half a billion dollars during the same period. Pakistan declared the importation of 24 M198 large caliber artillery pieces, 3 P-3C Orion aircraft, 28 Harpoon missiles, and 498 AIM9-L missiles from the United States to the UN Register of Conventional Arms in 1996, when the Clinton administration approved a one-time waiver of the sanctions. Pakistan received no Foreign Military Financing (FMF) or International Military Education and Training (IMET) after FY 90, except for a grant of $174,000 for IMET in FY 99, nor did Pakistan receive any weapons through the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program during that period.

In FY 00, Congress gave the administration the ability to waive the application of the Glenn, Symington and Pressler amendments to Pakistan (and India) indefinitely; however, in the same year, Congress banned all military aid to Pakistan until a democratically elected government replaced the government of Musharraf. Pakistan received no U.S. military training or weapons between FY 00 and FY 01.

U.S. Military Assistance Since Sept. 11, 2001

Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan, until the events of Sept. 11, 2001, when it reversed its support and allied itself with the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Since then, Pakistan has cooperated extensively with the United States in fighting terrorism, and the FY 07 congressional budget justification for the Foreign Operations budget states that Pakistan's support, "has been, and remains, critical to U.S. success in apprehending al-Qaida, Taliban, and other terrorists." Joint U.S.-Pakistan counterterrorism efforts have been extensive, including cooperative border security activities and criminal investigations, as well as several long-term training projects. Pakistan has allowed for basing and overflight rights for all U.S. and coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan. Pakistan has banned a number of militant organizations, although it is believed that many of the banned groups have simply continued to operate under different names.

The U.S. State Department reports that Pakistan has "aggressively" pursued Taliban remnants and extremist militants operating in northern parts of the country, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the North West Frontier Province that borders on Afghanistan, who are believed by U.S. authorities to be sheltering al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. In September 2005, Pakistan deployed 80,000 soldiers to the border region and conducted operations, which, according to the U.S. State Department's 2005 terrorism report, "significantly degraded al-Qaida's command and control capabilities in the region and disrupted cross-border operations," as well as killed al-Qaida's chief of external operations. According to a 2006 RAND study, Pakistan has reportedly rendered more terror suspects to the United States than any other counterterrorism ally. Because of Pakistan's cooperation with the United States, and in light of its own domestic struggles to eradicate terrorist networks, the U.S. State Department considers Pakistan to be a "front-line state" in the war on terrorism.

Despite the fact that Musharraf remains an unelected leader who had gained power as result of a coup, despite the fact that Pakistan's nuclear program remains outside of the NPT, and despite the fact that Pakistan is still involved in the Kashmir conflict, U.S. military assistance to Pakistan resumed immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, at which time preexisting sanctions on such U.S. assistance were waived. Of the 25 countries profiled in this series, Pakistan is second to only Bahrain in terms of largest amount of U.S. weapons and military assistance received since Sept. 11. However, the majority of Bahrain's total consists of commercial weapons sales concluded with the United States, whereas the bulk of Pakistan's total is FMF grants from the United States to subsidize the purchase of U.S. weapons.

Military assistance to Pakistan increased astronomically in the five years following Sept. 11, when compared with the five years prior. IMET appropriations have increased each year since FY 02, with $2 million requested for Pakistan in both FY 07 and FY 08. The bulk of the increase in military assistance, however, was provided through the FMF program. Excluding the billions of dollars granted each year to Israel and to Egypt via the FMF account, appropriations to Pakistan accounted for 32 percent of the entire FMF budget and, if the current budget request for Pakistan is enacted, will account for 36 percent of the FMF budget in FY 08.

U.S. arms sales to Pakistan during the five years after Sept. 11 were worth 13 times more than those concluded during the five prior years. Both DCS and FMS have increased dramatically, with more than a billion dollars worth of sales projected for the upcoming two fiscal years. In FY 05, Pakistan received two F-16A fighter jets through the EDA program (which it reported to the UN Register of Conventional Arms) and, in October 2006, Pakistan and the United States concluded a $5 billion sale

of 18 new F-16s – with all jets scheduled to be delivered by 2010 – despite the vehement objections of members of the U.S. Congress.

In FY 05, the United States made it part of its policy toward Pakistan to allocate a minimum of $300 million in military assistance each year, and FMF appropriations in the FY 05 and FY 06 (as well as FY 07 and FY 08 requests) satisfied that agreement, with additional assistance provided from the IMET account, as well as several others. Pakistan received $500,000 through the Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) in FY 06 and is slated to receive an additional $300,000 in FY 07. Pakistan was also one of roughly a dozen countries to receive military assistance through the new Section 1206 authority in the defense budget. More than $20 million was designated for improving Pakistan's counterterrorism capabilities in FY 06, adding to the $300 million in FMF also designated for that same purpose in FY 06. Pakistan has also received funding through the Foreign Operations budget's Anti-Terrorism Assistance program (NADR-ATA), which is part of the Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining, and Related Activities account, since FY 02. Pakistan received $7.3 million in FY 06, and is slated to receive another $8 million in FY 08. Pakistan is also a beneficiary of Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) funding, provided through the Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) account, which assists countries to participate in international peacekeeping missions.

FMS		IMET		FMF		DCS		EDA
U.S. Military Assistance and Sales to Pakistan, FY 90 - FY 08
1990	$506,000		$184,369,000		$99,906,000		$120,257,000		n/a
1991	$0		$0		$25,272,000		$0		n/a
1992	$0		$0		$8,162,000		$0		n/a
1993	$0		$0		$4,789,000		$0		$0
1994	$0		$0		$1,781,000		$0		$0
1995	$0		$0		$6,286,000		$0		$0
1996	$0		$0		$4,224,000		$143,247,000		$0
1997	$0		$0		$2,223,000		$183,295,000		$0
1998	$0		$0		$346,000		$76,035,000		$0
1999	$174,000		$0		$0		$0		$0
2000	$0		$0		$0		$0		$0
2001	$0		$0		$0		$0		$0
1990-2001	$680,000		$184,369,000		$152,989,000		$522,834,000		$0
1997-2001	$174,000		$0		$2,569,000		$259,330,000		$0
2002	$894,000		$75,000,000		$0		$6,456,000		$0
2003	$990,000		$224,500,000		$590,000		$4,659,000		$268,047,054
2004	$1,356,000		$74,560,000		$7,492,000		$36,155,000		$86,400,000
2005	$1,773,000		$298,800,000		$85,341,000		$60,739,000		$32,446,966
2006	$2,037,000		$297,000,000		$182,918,000		$3,496,729,000		$0
2002-2006	$7,050,000		$969,860,000		$276,341,000		$3,604,738,000		$386,894,020
2007	$2,075,000		$300,000,000		$27,613,000		$213,000,000		$0
2008	$2,000,000		$300,000,000		$72,159,000		$1,470,000,000		$0

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Nadeem Malik

Saturday, September 08, 2007

U.S. Military Assistance and Sales to Pakistan

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