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U.S. to cancel $300 mn aid to Pak.
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- The U.S. military plans to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad’s lack of “decisive actions” in support of American strategy in the region, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
- The U.S. has been pushing Pakistan to crack down on militant safe havens in the country, and announced a freeze on aid at the beginning of the year that an official said could be worth almost $2 billion.
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- The Defense Department has sought to cut aid by $300 million “due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy.
- Pakistan has fought fierce campaigns against home-grown militant groups, and says it has lost thousands of lives and spent billions of dollars in its long war on extremism. But U.S. officials accuse Islamabad of ignoring or even collaborating with groups, which attack Afghanistan from safe havens along the border between the two countries.
- The White House believes that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and other military bodies have long helped fund and arm the Taliban for ideological reasons, but also to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan. It also believes that a Pakistani crackdown could be pivotal in deciding the outcome of the long-running war in Afghanistan.
- U.S. frustration has boiled over before: President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama authorised drone strikes on Pakistani safe havens.
- But Mr. Trump’s aggressive language has especially angered Pakistani officials.
- In March, a senior U.S. official said that Pakistan has “done the bare minimum to appear responsive to our requests”, and concerns over a lack of action by Islamabad against militant groups still persist.
- Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly blamed Islamabad’s participation in the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign for the surge in terrorism on home soil over the last decade and has vowed to rebalance Islamabad's relationship with Washington.
- Mr. Khan has also shown a willingness to hold talks with militant groups and sought support from religious hardliners in the run-up to elections last July.
Source
The Hindu