ISLAMABAD – US President Donald Trump’s administration is stronglyconsidering whether to withhold $255 million USD in aid to Pakistan as itfeels Islamabad is not doing enough to counter terrorism, the New YorkTimes reported.
According to the report, senior administration officials met this month todecide what to do about the money, and American officials said a finaldecision could be made in the coming weeks.
The latest move comes after the US has been denied access to a member ofthe Taliban-linked Haqqani network who is in Pakistan’s custody.
According to the New York Times, the Haqqani member was one of theabductors who held an American and Canadian, along with their threechildren, hostage for five years.
US officials told the newspaper that the Americans demanded access to theman who they feel might have valuable information about the whereabouts ofat least one other American hostage.
But Pakistani officials rejected the requests.
Trump has in the past threatened to withhold the aid to Pakistan as the USfeels Islamabad is failing to cooperate on counterterrorism efforts.
A few months ago, Trump declared that Pakistan “gives safe haven to agentsof chaos, violence and terror.”
The United States, has provided Pakistan with more than $33 billion USD inaid since 2002.
The report stated that US officials, who spoke on the condition ofanonymity to describe the sensitive discussions, did not detail whatconditions Pakistan would have to meet to receive the aid.
Caitlan Coleman, an American, and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, werefreed along with their children in an October raid after five years incaptivity.
Pakistani troops confronted Haqqani militants as they ferried the familyacross the tribal lands of northwest Pakistan.