Donald Trump backs senator’s proposal to cancel all aid to Pak
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has expressed public support for a Republican senator’s plan to introduce a legislation cancelling all aid to Pakistan, soon after his administration announced it was suspending security-related assistance worth about $2 billion.
“Good idea Rand!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Friday night while retweeting a post by Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky, that said: “I’m introducing a bill to end aid to Pakistan in the coming days. My bill will take the money that would have gone to Pakistan and put it in an infrastructure fund to build roads and bridges here at home.”
Paul’s legislation would target all aid to Pakistan, going beyond the Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it was suspending — not ending, as proposed by Paul — nearly all security-related assistance to Pakistan, which includes foreign military financing, financial assistance to buy American military hardware, and the Coalition Support Fund that reimburses expenses for supporting Us-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The total US aid for Pakistan since 2002 was $33 billion.
The latest push suggests heightened pressure on Pakistan and the US’S gradual alignment with India’s position that its neighbour is a terror haven.
Paul’s plan doesn’t discriminate between civilian and military aid for Pakistan. That is Trump’s intent as well, as he indicated in a fiery New Year’s Day tweet: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Paul seems to have picked up from there. “The US should not give one penny to countries who burn our flag and chant ‘Death to America’,” Paul said in a brief video posted online before the administration went public with its suspension decision.
“They only understand negotiation from strength and so what I am proposing, and what I will insist upon in the next few days, is a vote on ending aid to Pakistan,” he added. “Countries like Pakistan that stonewall access to key information in fighting terrorism don’t deserve our money.” Paul is a long-time critic of Pakistan. In February 2016, he introduced a joint resolution in the Senate opposing an Obama administration proposal to sell eight F-16 jets to Pakistan at costs subsidised by US taxpayers.
“The US and Pakistan relationship has been a troubled one,” he had said in a statement at the time. “Though the government of Pakistan has been considered America’s ally in the fight on terrorism, Pakistan’s behaviour would suggest otherwise. While we give them billions of dollars in aid, we are simultaneously aware of their intelligence and military apparatus assisting the Afghan Taliban.”
KENTUCKY SENATOR RAND PAUL’S PLAN DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN CIVILIAN AND MILITARY AID FOR PAKISTAN