US President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed Republican Senator Rand Paul’s proposal to redirect aid money that would have gone to Pakistan into a US infrastructure fund.
“Good idea Rand!” Trump responded on Twitter.
Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018
In a tweet on Thursday, Kentucky Republican Senator Paul said he planned to introduce his proposal soon.
“My bill will take the money that would have gone to Pakistan and put it in an infrastructure fund to build roads and bridges here at home,” Paul tweeted.
I’m introducing a bill to end aid to Pakistan in the coming days. My bill will take the money that would have gone to Pakistan and put it in an infrastructure fund to build roads and bridges here at home. pic.twitter.com/SHlA00rWEd
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 4, 2018
The US State Department on Thursday froze military aid to Pakistan until it took decisive action against terrorists operating in the country. It said it did not intend to reprogram any funds at this time.
The New Year tweet by US President Donald Trump accusing Pakistan of lies and deceit, thinking US leaders to be fools, led to heightened tensions between Pakistan and the US.
“They give safe havens to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he said on January 1.
In an interview with The Guardian at the PM Office, Abbasi said that reports that the US was considering cuts of up to $2 billion in security assistance were bewildering as 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 $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 Guardian reported.
“Pakistan is a sovereign country and Pakistan has always abided by international conventions,” he said in the report. “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.”
“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 $120bn in our economy. So the world has to appreciate that. We just want the world to know that Pakistan is on the forefront on the war on this terror,” he stated further.