Minister slams Trump over ‘tirade’ against Pakistan
Islamabad: A day after Donald Trump claimed that Pakistan “does not do anything” for the US, Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari reminded the President about the human losses incurred by Islamabad over the years.
“The loss of Pakistani lives in the US War on Terror, the free space for (CIA contractor) Raymond Davis and other operatives, the illegal killings by drone attacks – the list is endless,” Mazari tweeted. “Once again history shows appeasement does not work.”
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump defended his administration’s decision at the start of 2018 to axe “military aid” to Pakistan by linking it to the slain Taliban chief Osama bin Laden who was killed in Pakistan in 2011, Dawn news reported.
“We give Pakistan $1.3 billion a year… (bin Laden) lived in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them $1.3 billion a year – which we don’t give them any more, by the way. I ended it because they don’t do anything for us,” the President said.
Mazari called “Trump’s tirade against Pakistan” a lesson for those Pakistani leaders “who kept appeasing the US especially after 9/11”.
“Whether China or Iran, US policies of containment and isolation do not coincide with Pakistan’s strategic interests,” the Minister said.
Mazari accused Trump of suffering “from perpetual historic amnesia”.
Relations between the US and Pakistan, which began to strain in 2011, reached a new low in January when Trump suspended American security assistance to Islamabad over the alleged presence of Afghan militant groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Islamabad has rejected the charge as incorrect.
The Inter-Services Public Relations has said that that the Coalition Support Fund received from the US was reimbursement of money spent for operations in support of the coalition in Afghanistan.