WASHINGTON: The United States has resumed bankrolling Pakistan with American tax dollars despite the unstable country ramping up nuclear weapons production and its political leadership paying little or no taxes.

The Obama administration has reportedly sent to the Congress on December 7, Pakistan’s tab for a $688 million payment that constitutes Islamabad’s bill for deploying its troops and providing infrastructural support to the US in its war in Afghanistan.

The payout, going through without any protest or discussion in Washington, is said to be the first since summer this year, after payment of the so-called Coalition Support Fund (CSF) was suspended amid worsening ties between the two countries due to the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year and the Salala attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Obama administration has ostensibly felt the need to buy Pakistan’s support for its upcoming draw-down from Afghanistan despite serious misgivings in Washington.

Non-proliferation circles have been replete in recent days with reports of Pakistan’s “reckless” drive towards deploying (small) tactical nuclear weapons, which arms control advocates feel will be easy for jihadist groups to intercept or hijack during their transportation to battlefield stations.

More recently, there has been outrage among regional analysts at media reports from Pakistan that the country’s political leadership and elite mooch off the US but themselves avoid paying taxes. A recent study produced by a Pakistani investigative think tank revealed that 60% of country’s cabinet and two-thirds of federal lawmakers did not file tax returns last year, a scroll of shame that reportedly included the President, the finance minister , and the foreign minister.

“The problem starts at the top. Those who make revenue policies, run the government and collect taxes have not been able to set good examples for others,” the study titled “Representation without Taxation” produced by the Centre for Investigative Reporting and widely cited in the US, was quoted as saying.

Regardless, Pakistan has powerful supporters in Washington who have pressed for ladling out US tax dollars in the belief thatAmerica needs to remain invested in the country, none more than Senator John Kerry , President Obama’s putative secretary of state. Kerry was the co-author of the so-called Kerry-Lugar-Berman law which authorized a five-year $7.5 billion payout to Pakistan subject to a slew of conditions and caveats.

Few of those conditions, including rolling back the promotion of hatred and bigotry through official texts, tracts, and laws and access to nuclear proliferator AQ.Khan, have been met, but evidently Washington has had enough of leaning on Pakistan given the exigencies of withdrawing from Afghanistan. In fact, Islamabad has gone a step further in poking Washington in the eye by mainstreaming AQ Khan into politics and incarcerating a doctor who helped the CIA eliminate Osama bin Laden.

Kerry, who even the liberal New York Times, which first reported the resumption of CSF funding online, said “has frequently served as an envoy to Pakistan, including after the killing of Osama bin Laden,” has been a key principal in the making of the Pakistan policy. “Kerry’s nomination (as secretary of state) would be welcomed in Pakistan, where he is seen as perhaps the most sympathetic to Pakistani concerns. He has nurtured relationships with top civilian and military officials, as well as ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency,” the NYT said.