Pakistan Aid Tied to Ban on Nuclear Bomb

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted today to end foreign aid to Pakistan unless President Reagan assures Congress that the assistance will help keep the country from building a nuclear bomb.

The provision, an amendment to the $13-billion foreign aid package for next year, is the same as one approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.

The amendment, approved by the House panel on a voice vote with no opposition, forbids providing Pakistan with aid or military equipment unless the President certifies that “Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device and that the proposed U.S. assistance program will reduce significantly the risk that Pakistan will possess a nuclear explosive device.”

Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Asia subcommitee, said that the only question was whether the provision also should apply to India, but that he thought it was unnecessary.

The measure’s author, Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), said that despite concerns about the Pakistani nuclear program, Congress made an exception to a general prohibition on aid to the country in 1981 because of the threat posed by Soviet occupying troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Reagan Administration has asked for $601 million in aid to Pakistan for next year. Solarz’s subcommittee has recommended that the full committee trim $25 million from the request to provide Pakistan with the same aid next year as this year.