PM Imran hits back after Trump ‘tirade’

Prime Minister Imran Khan hit back yesterday at US President DonaldTrump’s claim that Islamabad does not do “a damn thing” for the US,calling on the US leader to name an ally which has sacrificed moreagainst militancy.“Record needs to be put straight on Mr Trump’s tirade against Pakistan,”Khan, a former World Cup cricketer, wrote in a series of tweetsdefending his country’s record in Washington’s war on terror.The US president gave an interview to Fox News Sunday in which he saidhe cancelled assistance worth hundreds of millions of dollars toPakistan earlier this year because “they don’t do anything for us, theydon’t do a damn thing for us”.The friction threatens to further worsen already fragile relations between Islamabad and Washington.Washington has long pressured Islamabad to crack down on militancy,accusing Pakistan of ignoring or even collaborating with groups whichattack Afghanistan from safe havens along the border between the twocountries.Pakistan, which joined the US war on terror in 2001, says it has paid the price for the alliance.“Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123bn waslost to economy. US ‘aid’ was a miniscule $20bn,” Khan tweetedyesterday. “Our tribal areas were devastated & millions of ppluprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted lives ofordinary Pakistanis.”He also noted that Pakistan continues to provide the US with supplylines into Afghanistan, adding: “Can Mr Trump name another ally thatgave such sacrifices?”Instead of making Pakistan “a scapegoat for their failures”, the USshould do a serious assessment of “why the Taliban today are strongerthan before”, he concluded.Trump also told Fox News host Chris Wallace that Al Qaeda chief Osamabin Laden had lived “beautifully in Pakistan and what I guess in whatthey considered a nice mansion, I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer”.“Living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody inPakistan knew he was there,” he said, according to a transcript of theinterview.Bin Laden was found to be hiding in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad,where he was killed in a raid by US Navy Seals in 2011 in an incidentthat sent relations between the wayward allies to a new low.Critics have said US aid over the years to Pakistan has not yieldeddesired strategy goals for Washington, something Trump seems to havetaken on board as he moves to cut assistance, already reducing paymentsworth some $800mn.“They were just one of many countries that take from the United Stateswithout giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!” Trump wrote onTwitter yesterday.Pakistan denies supporting Afghan Taliban insurgents waging war againstUS-backed troops in Afghanistan, and Islamabad has also always rejectedclaims that officials aided bin Laden.Khan did not respond to Trump’s bin Laden comments.