Days after American President Donald Trump made the statement, “Pakistan doesn’t do a damn thing for the US”, another big revelation has come up, sending Pakistan in a state of shock.
The United States of America has scrapped USD 1.66 billion security assistance to Pakistan. “The US has suspended USD 1.66 billion in security assistance to Pakistan after President Donald Trump’s directive”, said the Pentagon. Earlier, President Trump alleged that the Pakistani government had helped Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and provided him a hideout at Abbottabad.
“USD 1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended,” Col Rob Manning, spokesman of the Department of Defence, told the reporters.
According to David Sedney, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary Defence for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia during the previous Obama administration termed this as a strong signal of ‘American frustration’ which began in January this year.
While in conversation with PTI, Sedney said, “But, so far Pakistan has taken no serious steps to address the core US concern – that Pakistan tolerates and often encourages groups which use violence against Pakistan’s neighbours.” “Pakistan’s leaders have promised cooperation, but beyond words, serious cooperation has not happened, therefore President Trump is frustrated and so are most Americans,” he further added. He went on to say, “What the US seeks, what President Trump is asking for, is for Pakistan to take the same kind of measures against the Taliban, Lashkhar-e-Taiba and against all groups in Pakistan that threaten Pakistan’s neighbours,”.
Earlier in September, the Trump administration nullified USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not being up to the mark in neutralising terror groups active on its soil. The relations between the two countries have soured after Donald Trump assumed power in the US. The US administration has suspended nearly USD 2 billion in military aid to the Islamic Republic this year. Pakistani leadership has misused the American help by supporting and allowing terrorism to prosper on its soil. In an interview with Fox news, Trump said, “We were giving them $1.3 billion a year — which we don’t give them anymore; by the way, I ended it because they don’t do anything for us, and they don’t do a damn thing for us.”
In August 2017, Trump had said, “We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting.” He had openly hit out at the Islamic Republic for providing safe havens to “agents of chaos” that kill Americans in Afghanistan and also had cautioned Islamabad that it has “much to lose” by nurturing terrorists.
The decision from United States has come at a time when Pakistan finds itself entirely isolated and is on the verge of collapse. The nation struggles with a financial crisis with the current balance of ‘payments crisis‘ being the third consecutive in 10 years.
On the other hand India’s growing ties with America is no secret. Trump in a recent Diwali celebration at the White House called India a ‘very good negotiator’. The coming together of the United States and India has already been successful in isolating Pakistan. It will be interesting to see how the recently elected Imran Khan government tackles the current situation of financial crisis coupled with diplomatic defeats at the hands of India world-wide. Will Pakistan undo what has earlier been done or will it continue to walk on the foot-steps of its predecessors?
