Shakeel Afridi,a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden.

US Senate panel has cut Pakistan's aid by $33 million after Islamabad jailed a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 30-0 Thursday to cut Islamabad's aid in response to the conviction of Shakeel Afridi, the doctor who sought to collect DNA samples to help verify for the CIA that bin Laden was hiding at a compound in Abbottabad, close to the Pakistani capital.

The cut was pushed by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who called Pakistan a "schizophrenic ally".
The US "(doesn't) need Pakistan double-dealing and not seeing the justice in bringing Osama bin Laden to an end."

The committee had already slashed President Barack Obama's request for aid to Pakistan by 58 percent and threatened deeper cuts if Islamabad failed to open supply routes to US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed those routes after a US attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against Afridi's sentence.
"The United States does not believe there is any basis for holding Dr (Shakil) Afridi. We regret the fact that he was convicted and the severity of his sentence," Clinton told reporters Thursday.