The US military has taken a decision to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan due to latter’s lack of “decisive actions” in support of regional American strategy.
“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining USD 300 million aid to Pakistan was reprogrammed by (the Defence Department) in the June/July 2018 time frame for other urgent priorities,” Pentagon Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kon Faulkner said.
Faulkner said that the Pentagon aimed to spend the $300 million on “other urgent priorities” if approved by Congress.
He further added that another $500 million in CSF was stripped by Congress from Pakistan earlier this year, to bring the total withheld to $800 million.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has refused to give the necessary certification to the Congress that Pakistan has taken strong steps against terrorist groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba. “This is not a new decision or a new announcement,” said by Faulkner in response to a question.
Faulkner said that they will continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network and LET in the region.
Pentagon will have a congressional response by the end of September, to allow it to implement the reprogramming actions, he said.
