ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday said its forces fought war against terrorism largely from its own resources and it cost the country $120 billion in last 15 years.
In a statement issued in response to suspension of US military assistance for Pakistan, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Faisal said the impact of Washington’s decision on pursuit of common objectives would emerge more clearly in due course. “However, it needs to be appreciated that Pakistan has fought the war against terrorism largely from its own resources,” reads the statement. “We are determined to continue to do all it takes to secure the lives of our citizens and ensure broader stability in the region,” it added.
The statement further said that Pakistani officials were engaged with the US administration on the issue of security cooperation and were awaiting further details.
On Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert had told a news briefing in Washington that the cut-off was not permanent and that it will only affects military assistance.
The statement by Foreign Office added that the Pakistan-US cooperation in fighting terrorism directly served the US national security interests as well as the larger interests of the international community. “Through a series of major counterterrorism operations, Pakistan cleared all these areas, resulting in elimination of organised terrorist presence leading to significant improvement in security in Pakistan.”
The statement added that Pakistan was awaiting reciprocal actions from the Afghan side ‘in terms of clearance of vast stretches of ungoverned spaces on the Afghan side, bilateral border management, repatriation of Afghan refugees, controlling poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and initiating Afghan-led and owned political reconciliation in Afghanistan’.
The United States has been threatening for months to cut aid to Islamabad over its failure to crack down on groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, which it says operate from bases in Pakistan’s northwest. The rhetoric has raised hackles in Islamabad and fears the row could undermine Pakistan’s support for US operations in Afghanistan.
In September last year, the US had already suspended $255 million in funding to help Pakistan buy high-tech weaponry from American manufacturers. Now, the Defense Department has been instructed to stop making payments from ‘coalition support funds’ set aside to refund Pakistani spending on counter-terrorist operations.
Published in Daily Times, January 6th 2018.
