Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday said that Pakistan has paid the highest military, economic, political and social cost and the world should acknowledge it.
In a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the COAS Bajwa said that Pakistan has successfully fought against terrorism while also contributing to regional peace.
He said Islamabad has done much more for peace in Afghanistan than any other country.
Gen Qamar Bajwa went on to say that we shall continue to contribute towards peace in Afghanistan but Pakistan’s honour and Pakistan’s security shall always stay premier.
Earlier, a war of words erupted after US President Donald Trump while extending his proclivity of creating diplomatic mess, unleashed yet another diatribe against Pakistan accusing Islamabad of ‘doing nothing for US’.
Trump also defended his administration s decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, saying the country does not do “a damn thing” for the US and its government had helped Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city.
“And we give Pakistan USD 1.3 billion a year. … (Laden] lived in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them US$1.3 billion a year — which we don t give them anymore, by the way, I ended it because they don t do anything for us, they don t do a damn thing for us,” he said.
Taking strong exception to US President Donald Trump’s diatribe against Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday lashed out at US President Donald Trump following his remarks that Pakistan doesn’t “do a damn thing” for the United States despite billions of dollars in US aid for the South Asian nation.
The premier took to popular micro-blogging website Twitter and said, “Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before.”
Khan said Pakistan had borne the brunt of the United States’ war on terror, which focused on militants that straddle the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal belt.
“No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pak decided to participate in US War on Terror,” Khan said. “Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123bn was lost to economy. US “aid” was a minuscule $20 bn.”
Khan also pointed out that Pakistan continued to provide its roads and air space for the re-supply for more than 10,000 US troops currently based in Afghanistan.
“Can Mr Trump name another ally that gave such sacrifices?”
The friction threatens to further worsen already fragile relations between Islamabad and Washington, on-off allies who have repeatedly clashed about the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s alleged support for Islamist militants.
Ever since Trump’s ‘unexpected’ rise to power, the relations between Islamabad and Washington have dipped to new low as United States continues to put blame of its failures in war-torn Afghanistan on Pakistan.
In 2018 only, the deaths of Afghanistan security forces have mounted to a new high as Taliban insurgency continue to grow stronger.
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