By Muhammad Luqman
Prime Minister Imran Khan has strongly responded to US President Donald Trump’s tirade against Pakistan, according to media reports.
In a series of tweets, PM Imran Khan said record needed to be put straight on Mr Trump’s tirade against Pakistan:
- No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pak decided to participate in US War on Terror.
- Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123 bn was lost to economy. US “aid” was a miniscule $20 bn.
- Our tribal areas were devastated & millions of ppl uprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted lives of ordinary Pakistanis.
- Pak continues to provide free lines of ground & air communications(GLOCs/ALOCs).
Can Mr Trump name another ally that gave such sacrifices?, PM Imran questioned.
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 and reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before, Khan added.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump 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.
Referring to Laden and his former compound in Abbottabad, Trump in an interview to Fox News said, “You know, living – think of this – living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion, I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer.”