The Senate Appropriations Committee has said it will cut US aid by $1m for each year of Shakil Afridi’s sentence.
Dr Afridi was tried for treason under a tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information for US intelligence. Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011.
The move from the Senate panel follows earlier cuts to the White House’s budget request for Pakistan. The cuts would be part of a bill that would send $1bn in aid to Pakistan in the next financial year.
“We need Pakistan, Pakistan needs us, but we don’t need Pakistan double-dealing and not seeing the justice in bringing Osama Bin Laden to an end,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, calling Pakistan “a schizophrenic ally”.
Meanwhile Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said: “It’s Alice in Wonderland at best. If this is co-operation, I’d hate like hell to see opposition.”
Correspondents say the cuts reflect mounting frustration in Congress over Pakistan’s role in fighting terrorism on its soil.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday denounced as “unjust and unwarranted” the treatment of a Pakistani doctor who was jailed for 33 years for helping in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
A tribal court in Khyber, a lawless district and extremist hotbed, on Wednesday convicted Shakeel Afridi of treason after he agreed to collect DNA for US intelligence to verify the presence of the most-wanted al-Qaeda leader.
“We regret both the fact that he was convicted and the severity of his sentence,” Hillary told a joint press conference with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. — BBC Online/AFP
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