US cuts military aid worth $255 million to Pakistan

The Trump administration on Friday announced the United States will deny Pakistan military aid amounting to $255 million as it expects Islamabad to take decisive action "against terrorists and militants on its soil".

"The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 in Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time," said a spokesperson of the President's National Security Council in a statement to Hindustan Times.

"The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan's actions in support of the South Asia Strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance.

"The Administration continues to review Pakistan's level of cooperation."

The statement reflected and sealed the administration's complete disillusionment with Pakistan, which had sought to brazenly disregard the explicit warnings issued by President Donald Trump personally and leading members of his cabinet, such as secretaries James Mattis and Rex Tillerson.

"This could be the severest blow dealt to Islamabad by this administration if it indeed decided to withhold it," said a leading US expert on Pakistan, who did not want to be identified. "There is more coming," the expert added.

The amount, $255 million, is left over from $1.1 billion aid earmarked for Pakistan in 2016, and which included non-military aid as well. It was cleared for handing over in August, just days before it would lapsed as unspent money.

First reported by The New York Times, the move to withhold the money, which may not be large but would have signaled US backing, is reported to have come shortly after Pakistan refused to hand over to the Americans an operative of the Haqqani Network apprehended during the rescue of an American-Canadian family in October.

The Haqqani Network is an affiliate of Afghan Taliban and works out of Pakistan, inflicting massive casualties on US-led international coalition in Afghanistan. Frustrated by Islamabad's reluctance to give them, the United States has tied large portions of military aid payments to Pakistan to its actions aimed at debilitating the network.

Pakistan, however, has chosen to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in such payments over 2015 and 2016, instead of kicking out the terrorists. And it has lost equity.