Recently, two of the most influential lawmakers in America came up with a bill that stated, that Pakistan shall be declared as a sponsor of terrorism. Ted Poe from Texas and Dana Rohrabacher from California, both Republicans, have introduced this bill. Their main purpose of presenting the bill was to show that Pakistan had failed way too many times to take any strict action against the terrorist groups present in the country such as ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba‘ and ‘Jaish-e-Mohammad‘, which in turn has been a threat for various countries in the past as well as the present.
‘‘Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2016” is a two-step process before becoming a law. The first step includes a report by the administration to the Congress which would affirm all the times, Pakistan has committed or even attempted any act that has been referred in the bill. After this in the next 30 days, the Secretary of State would be required to submit another report that would explain whether any of these acts can be considered as Pakistan supporting terrorism. Even if the government refuses to pass the bill, they have to give a detailed justification for this action of theirs.
After this, an only petition was started for the same bill and it crossed 100,000 signatures which certify it to get a response from Obama administration. It is now the third most popular petition in America, after the “Dakota Access Pipeline” and “Kratom a schedule I substance” that received 210,000 and 137,000 signatures respectively. This online petition was lofted by the Indian-American community in America on September 21.
This petition is crucial for many countries including India and America that are constantly afflicted by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, as said by the creators. It was created on “We The People” online petition forum which is an initiative by President Barack Obama.
In the meantime, White House said that their main focus is on augmenting the proficiency of Pakistan in order to deal with terrorist menace in their own country.
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28 September 2016
Jyotsna Amla