Washington:
Influential American Senators have said they would oppose Obama Administration's proposal to triple civilian aid to Pakistan and substantially increase assistance to its army without clear-cut benchmarks and accountability provisions in it.
In fact these Senators, both from the Republican and Democratic parties, at times entered into a verbal dual with Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, during a hearing on Pakistan convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Fearing that the new financial aid to Pakistan could meet the same fate as that of $12 billion given to Islamabad by the previous regime, these Senators, at times agitated, cautioned Obama Administration that it should not expect a smooth approval of its proposals in the absence of accountability and benchmarks.
At one point of time Holbrooke even remarked that he was "troubled" with these statements. "I am deeply troubled by what you've said," Holbrooke told Robert Menendez, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey.
"You're asking us to vote for a whole new set of money without knowing whether there are going to be benchmarks, without knowing whether we have a better system of accountability. I personally can't continue down that road, as much as I think this is critical," Menendez said as other members of the Committee looked stunned.