US financial assistance to Pakistan is insignificant, says PM Abbasi

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on 6 January said financial assistance from the United States is "very, very insignificant" that it is considering cuts up to two billion dollars assistance.

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

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.

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

Adding, he said, "We have over 6,500 [killed] almost 37,000 of the civilian population has been killed. There are tens of thousands of people injured. We have suffered a loss of over USD 120 billion in our economy. So, the world has to appreciate that. We just want the world to know that Pakistan is on the forefront of the war on terror."

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

He also said, "The rest of the world failed in Afghanistan to control terrorists who today attack Pakistan across the border. Pakistan has won the war against terror on its own territory." 

-ANI