Pakistan PM Abbasi calls US financial assistance ‘insignificant'

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday said financial assistance from the United States is "very insignificant" and that Islamabad was "on the forefront of the war on terror".

In an interview with the Guardian, Abbasi said that reports about the US was considering cuts of up to $2 billion in security assistance were bewildering because of the total aid Pakistan civilian and military actually received was a tiny fraction of that amount.

"The aid in the last five years at least has been less than $10 million a year. It is a very, very insignificant amount. So when I read in the paper that aid at the level of $250 million or 500 or 900 has been cut, we at least are not aware of that aid,"he said.

The US Agency for International Development, claimed that the US gave USD 778 million to Pakistan in assistance in 2016, of which 35 per cent was military and the rest economic.

Abbasi also rejected President Trump's charge of duplicity in the fight against terrorism.

"Pakistan is a sovereign country and it has always abided by international conventions," he said.

"We are today fighting the largest war on terror in the world. We are fighting the world's war on terror with our own resources... That is something the world has to appreciate.

"Today we are fighting terrorists. So if somebody says we are harbouring terrorists, there is no greater fallacy," Abbasi said.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)