Tierney: Tough love for Pakistan

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- As Pakistan is rocked with daily attacks, Representative Congressman John F. Tierney, who heads a House subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, traveled to there this week to meet with military and political leaders, as well as private citizens who have fled the violence.

Tierney, a Salem Democrat who has pushed for more accountability on military aid to the troubled south Asian country, said he will continue to press for strict oversight of funds, even though Pakistan's military is under daily attack by insurgents who threaten both Pakistan and the United States.

In the past, "whenever the request was made, the bill was paid," he said of the funds that the Bush administration gave to Pakistan's military to cover costs of deploying its soldiers in the lawless tribal areas. "Now you are going to find out there has to be substantial verification before the funds are paid."

Tierney vowed similar oversight on $1.5 billion in non-military aid funding for Pakistan approved by Congress this year.

It is not clear how welcome his message of strict oversight was received in Pakistan, where many complained bitterly on conditions that he had placed on military assistance in the $1.5 billion aid package.

Today Tierney presided over the US donation of $430,000 worth of medical supplies to the North West Frontier Province, a region that has been hard hit by suicide bombings. He told reporters in a conference call that Pakistan's fragile political situation is "tenuous" but that the elected government appears to be stable for now.

Tierney also met with Pakistani military leaders, and leaders of opposition parties -- both groups whom are believed to be displeased with the government of current Pakistani president Ali Asif Zardari. But Tierney said both the military and the opposition said they were not trying to push Zardari out, either with a military takeover or a parliamentary action.

"The military is quite clearly indicating that there is no intention of a coup," he told reporters in a conference call from Islamabad. "In conversations with the opposition, their statements were that they have no intention of trying to push Zardari out . . . I don't know how long that lasts."