NuclearKey momentThe sanctions years
No certificate: Pressler sanctions take effect
With the Soviet army gone, President Bush declined to certify that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device, and most US aid and military sales stopped overnight.
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Sanctions
The Pressler Amendment
No certificate: military aid and new economic aid stop
Sanctions
The Pressler Amendment
No certificate: military aid and new economic aid stop
Background
Since 1985 the Pressler Amendment had made US assistance to Pakistan conditional on an annual presidential certification that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device. Presidents Reagan and Bush made the certification each year while the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. By 1990 US intelligence assessments of Pakistan’s progress had hardened, and the Afghan war that had justified the waivers was, for Washington, essentially won.
What happened
For fiscal year 1991, which began on 1 October 1990, President Bush did not provide the certification. Under the terms of section 620E(e), US military assistance and new economic aid to Pakistan were suspended and deliveries of major military equipment stopped1,2,3. An aid relationship worth about $564 million a year ended, and the sale of some $1.4 billion in military goods, including 28 F-16 fighter aircraft ordered by Pakistan, was interrupted4. Some programmes outside the ban, such as humanitarian assistance and support through non-governmental organisations, continued1.
The F-16 dispute
The frozen aircraft became the emblem of the sanctions. Pakistan had made large payments towards them, and the planes were stored in the Arizona desert while the two governments argued over whether Pakistan should receive the aircraft, a refund, or neither4,5. Pakistani leaders demanded either the planes or their money; US officials said the law prevented delivery and that a refund required congressional action or a third-country buyer4. The dispute was not settled until December 1998.
Perspectives
In Pakistan the cut-off was widely seen as betrayal: an ally that had borne the costs of the Afghan war was dropped as soon as it was no longer needed, and punished under a law that applied to it alone while India faced no comparable restriction6,7. Pakistani commentators have long argued that the sanctions were counterproductive, removing US leverage and pushing Pakistan to rely more heavily on its nuclear deterrent7. US officials and many in Congress responded that Pakistan had been warned for years that crossing nuclear thresholds would end aid, and that the law had been passed with Pakistan’s full knowledge3,5.
Why it mattered
The 1990 cut-off ended the Cold War alliance. It also removed most of the tools - training programmes, military sales and economic aid - through which the United States had built relationships with Pakistan’s armed forces and bureaucracy. A generation of Pakistani officers trained in the 1990s had little contact with their American counterparts, a gap US officials would later regret.
Legacy
The Pressler sanctions remained in force, with partial relief under the Brown Amendment from 1996, until they were waived after the attacks of 11 September 2001. Their memory continues to shape Pakistani attitudes to US commitments.
Sources
- Pakistan–U.S. Relations (CRS Issue Brief IB94041, updated 4 June 2002), Congressional Research Service via EveryCRSReport.com, 4 June 2002 · Official
- Chronology of Key Events (US v. Pakistan sanctions case), Peterson Institute for International Economics · Scholarly
- Pakistan nuclear weapons chronology (1990), GlobalSecurity.org · Reference
- Bhutto's US Lament Over F-16 Jets Gains Few Fans in Congress, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 April 1995 · Press
- The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly
- The cat-and-mouse game of US sanctions on nuclear Pakistan, Dawn · Press
- Dawn commentary on the legacy of the Pressler sanctions, Dawn · Press
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