US moves to cancel Pak aid worth $300 million
WASHINGTON: The United States military has moved to cancel $300 million in security-related aid to Pakistan, following repeated rebuke to the nation for providing a safe haven to terrorists, days before US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s visit to Islamabad for a meeting with newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The Pentagon said late on Saturday that the decision had been taken due to Pakistan’s lack of “decisive actions” in support of American strategy in the region. US officials have accused Islamabad of overlooking the presence of terrorist groups such as the Haqqani network and Lashkar-eTaiba on its soil.
Pompeo is scheduled to visit Islamabad en route to India for the inaugural 2+2 meeting this week. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Joseph Dunford, will accompany him to Pakistan, as they become the first senior US officials to meet the Pakistan premier since his swearing-in ceremony last month.
“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining $300 (million) was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said in a statement.
Pentagon proposes to use the money, which came from the security-related Coalition Support Fund (CSF), for other pur-
poses, if approved by Congress. It has asked the US Congress, which holds the government’s purse strings, to reprogramme the cancelled aid to be spent on other “urgent priorities”, as it stands to lapse on September 30. Faulkner said $500 million in CSF was cancelled by Congress earlier this year, taking up the total funds withheld this year to $800 million.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday that the matter of suspension of aid will be taken up during Pompeo’s visit to the country.
He said the money blocked by the US military was part of reimbursement for losses Pakistan
suffered while leading the fight against terrorism.
“I once again stress that it was no aid that was cancelled. It was all our money that we spent and they were merely reimbursing it,” Qureshi said at a news conference. “We will try to improve ties between the two countries. We will listen to him (Pompeo) and present our point of view to him as well.”
The US had announced a freeze on aid to Pakistan at the beginning of the year as it pushed the country to crack down on terrorist activities originating from its soil. The move had come just days after an angry New Year Tweet by US President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of giving the US only “lies & deceit” in return for $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he had said.
“We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups,” Faulkner said on Saturday, adding that the latest aid cut request was pending congressional approval.
The timing of the cancellation of the $300 million in aid comes at a delicate point for US-Pakistan relations.
The Trump administration has shown no willingness to ease pressure on Pakistan.