WASHINGTON: The United States (US) House of Representatives on Thursday voted 277 to 147 in favour of a defence policy bill seeking to increase restrictions on military aid for Pakistan unless certain conditions are met.
The House, expressing frustration over what they term Islamabad’s failure to crack down on the Haqqani network, passed the $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act 2017, or NDAA late on Wednesday.
The NDAA will block $450 million in aid to Islamabad unless it does more to fight the militant group, which lawmakers see as a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan.
The bill requires the Pentagon to certify that Pakistan is conducting military operations to disrupt the Haqqani network, not letting the network use North Waziristan as a safe haven and actively coordinating with Afghanistan’s government to fight the network along their border.
As they finalised the 2017 version of the annual bill, House members added three amendments related to Pakistan. All passed by unanimous voice vote.
