Outraged over the conviction of a Pakistani doctor who helped CIAfind Osama bin Laden, a US Senate panel has voted unanimously tocut aid to Islamabad by $33 million, which in effect means USD 1million for every year of the physician's 33-year sentencefor high treason. The unanimous vote on Thursday by the Senate Appropriationscommittee on the amendment, moved by Senator Lindsey Graham, isreflective of the changing mode in the U.S. especially the growinganger among U.S. lawmakers towards Pakistan. The U.S. has insisted that there is no basis to imprison Dr ShakilAfridi on treason charges, with Secretary of State Hillary Clintondenouncing it as "unjust and unwarranted". "We regret both the fact that he was convicted and theseverity of his sentence," Clinton told a joint pressconference with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. "We are raising it (his case) and we will continue to do sobecause we think that his treatment is unjust andunwarranted," she said on Friday. The latest decision by the key Senate panel represents about fourper cent of the USD 800 million set aside for Pakistan for the year2013. This includes USD 250 million in foreign military aid andanother USD 50 million for Pakistan's counterinsurgencyefforts. In fact, this amount of $800 million is far below the $2.3 billionthe Obama administration is requesting for Pakistan. Another Housecommittee had made similar recommendations early this week. During the mark-up, Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Graham calledPakistan a "schizophrenic" ally, which has suffered theworst losses at the hands of militants while at the same timeharboring the Haqqani network and other groups. "If this is cooperation, I would hate like heck to seeopposition," Leahy said. The Appropriations Committee approved Graham's amendment tocut the assistance by $33 million on a 30-0 vote. Influential Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein pointed out thatPakistan has suffered at the hands of terrorists yet misconstruedwhat is treason in convicting Afridi. She also insisted that Afridiwas not a spy. "This conviction says to me that al-Qaeda is viewed by thecourt to be Pakistan. I don't know which side of the warPakistan is on. This makes me seriously question our financialsupport to Pakistan," Feinstein said. The substantial reduction in House and Senate committees comesdespite warning from the White House that such a move could becounter-productive in getting Pakistan's cooperation in waragainst terrorism. Dr Afridi was accused of running a CIA-sponsored fake vaccineprogramme in Abbottabad, where bin Laden was killed last year onMay 2 in a covert US operation. His programme was aimed atobtaining DNA samples from any of bin Laden's family membersresiding in the compound. Dr. Afridi was awarded jail term under the tribal laws, known asFrontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). The British-era FCR is stilleffective in Pakistan's tribal regions. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Megapixel IP Cameras Manufacturer , IR IP Cameras Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit P2P IP Camera today!
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