The US on Tuesday made it clear to visiting Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that it was unlikely to make any changes in the bill for providing $ 7.5 billion aid and accused the army in that country of misinterpreting the legislation to serve their own interests.
"I know a number of countries have conditional aid based on meeting certain important criteria. I think the President believes this is appropriate. I think the opponents of this bill, as one of the sponsors said in the newspaper today, either are misinformed or are characterizing this in a different way for their own political purposes," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
"I listened closely to the concerns that were raised by the Foreign Minister and we talked about ways in which we can over the course of the next 24 hours set the record absolutely straight about the true intentions of the bill. It is clear from our discussion that the bill has not been characterized accurately in some quarters," Senator John Kerry, who co-sponsored the aid package, told reporters after his meeting with Qureshi.
Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the architect of the bill, would again meet Qureshi on Wednesday for the second round of discussion. PTI
