1971-07-08
By Tad Szulc
Page: 6
WASHINGTON, July 7—Senator Frank Church charged in a Senate speech today that $35‐ million worth of military equipment was still in the “pipe line” for delivery to Pakistan.
The Idaho Democrat, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that President Nixon “refuses to stop the flow” despite recommendations from the “bureaucracy” for the canceling of outstanding licenses for equipment destined for the Pakistani armed forces.
Senator Church did not elaborate on how he had made the estimate of $35‐million in additional military equipment awaiting shipment to Pakistan. Qualified sources said, how ever, that this was the total value of outstanding licenses issued by the State Department's Office of Munition Controls before the program of military sales was suspended on April 6.
These sources said that the State and Defense Departments had prepared a memorandum listing the outstanding licenses and recommended to the White House that they be canceled.
But, they said, Mr. Nixon ruled that the shipments be maintained.
The ban on the licensing was ordered after the Pakistani Army began to quell the rebel lion in East Pakistan by advocates of autonomy.
United States shipments of military equipment to Pakistan were disclosed by The New York Times last month and subsequently confirmed by the ad ministration with the explanation that the cargo represented items turned over to Pakistani agents in the United States be fore the eruption of the fighting in East Pakistan.