ISLAMABAD – Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail reactedangrily to United States’ (US) pressure over Islamist extremism and thefinancing of terror but was still considering new measures to curb moneylaundering in a bid to fend off international sanctions.

Ismail told *Financial Times* that he was “not worried” if the US canceledall its aid to Pakistan.

“We are the sixth or seventh-largest country in the world and have theseventh-largest standing army in the world,” Ismail said in an interview athis office in Islamabad. “We’re not going to compromise on our securityinterest and our national interest based on a few hundred million dollars,I promise you that,” he added.

Recently, US President Donald Trump recommitted to the Afghan war and triedto push Pakistan to do more to tackle the Taliban and affiliated groups, inpart by cancelling military aid and threatening further sanctions. Trumptweeted that his country had given the country more than $33 billion in aidover the last 15 years but received “nothing but lies and deceit” in return.

That tweet was followed by an announcement that the US would suspend $2billion in military aid in an effort to push Islamabad into further actionagainst domestic extremists. Congress was also considering a bill thatwould see civilian aid also brought to an end.

Since then, US officials had worked hard to persuade their Pakistanicounterparts to take the kind of action that could see aid restored, suchas arresting Taliban leaders and freezing their bank accounts. Far fromimproving relations, however, senior politicians in Islamabad said thatthey were being “lectured to” and “bullied”, and told the *FinancialTimes *thatrelations were at an all-time low.

The deterioration in the relationship could threaten US efforts to end thewar in Afghanistan, because Washington was hoping that Islamabad wouldsupport US troop movements and help bring elements of the Taliban to thenegotiating table.

While much of the negotiation was being done behind closed doors, Ismail’scomments were a rare public admission of the frustration felt by thegovernment over its treatment at the hands of the Trump administration.

Islamabad was particularly incensed by the US-led push to name and shamePakistan as failing to stop terrorism financing at a recent internationalmeeting in Paris. Members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whichincluded the US, UK, Russia and China, had proposed placing Pakistan onits “grey list” of countries which were not doing enough to tackle terrorfunding.

Islamabad has until June to come up with a plan, which Ismail said wouldinvolve prosecuting more people for terror financing and carrying out raidson illegal money changers but he expressed anger at the way in which thenegotiations were handled in Paris.

Accusing Washington of teaming up with New Delhi, he said, “I think thatAmerica and India probably together were just focused on embarrassingPakistan.”

Ismail was also weighing up several anti-money-laundering measures that hehoped would help persuade the international community not to impose furthersanctions. They included forcing holders of foreign currency bank accountsto declare the source of deposits over $100,000, as well as a one-timeamnesty for Pakistanis to declare offshore wealth to authorities.

But he insisted that Pakistan’s biggest mistake was failing to get itsmessage across to its international partners. “We are doing all we can toimprove the security situation in the region but maybe the world is notseeing our narrative [as] we want,” he said.