Haven't come to US to ask for aid: Shah Mahmood

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said the purpose of his visit to the US was not to seek aid but build deteriorating ties between the two countries.

“I am not here to talk dollars and cents, I am not here seeking aid,” Qureshi said in an interview with Fox News.

The foreign minister said Pakistan wants to fix 'a relationship that went sour – a relationship that has mutually-benefited both sides.'

"We have been allies for a long time, it is time to rebuild that powerful relationship," Qureshi said.

Talking about Dr Shakil Afridi, the foreign minister said the issue could be discussed with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Afridi’s future, Qureshi further said, lies not with politics but with the courts.

“We have a legal process. Afridi went through that legal process, he was given a fair chance to plead his case. He was sentenced, he was convicted and is serving a sentence,” Qureshi added. “We expect you to respect our legal process, as we respect yours.”

Qureshi represented Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week. He is scheduled to meet Pompeo in Washington on Tuesday.

Last month, the US made the final decision to cancel another $300 million in aid to Pakistan that had been halted over what the former claims is the latter's failure to take decisive action against militants.

The so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF) were part of a broader suspension in aid to Pakistan announced by US President Donald Trump at the start of the year when he accused Pakistan of rewarding past assistance with “nothing but lies & deceit.”

The US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who had an opportunity to authorise the said $300 million in CSF funds through this summer — if he saw concrete Pakistani actions to go after insurgents — chose not to do so, despite some US officials having held out the possibility that Islamabad could win back that support if it changed its behaviour.

“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 (million) was reprogrammed,” Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner, the spokesperson, said, adding that the Pentagon aimed to spend this money on “other urgent priorities” if approved by US Congress.

Faulkner said another $500 million in CSF was stripped by the Congress from Pakistan earlier this year, which brings the total withheld funds to $800 million.

Comments

Death toll in Indonesia quake-tsunami tops 800

The death toll from a powerful earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia leapt to 832 Sunday, as stunned people on the stricken island of Sulawesi struggled to find food and water and looting spread. The new toll announced by the national disaster agency was almost double the previous figure. Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the final number of dead could be in the "thousands." "It feels very tense," said 35-year-old mother Risa Kusuma, comforting her feverish baby boy at an evacuation centre in the gutted coastal city of Palu. "Every minute an ambulance brings in bodies. Clean water is scarce. The minimarkets are looted everywhere." Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday broadcast footage from a coastal community in Donggala, close to the epicentre of the quake, where some waterfront homes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higher ground after the quake struck. "When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills," a ...

PM Khan had ended tolerance for corruption: Fawad Chudry

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday asserted that all state institutions stand by Prime Minister Imran Khan and are working together to lead the country toward development. While talking to journalists, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that before Khan came to power, every politician thought that “corruption was their right”. However, PM Khan had ended tolerance for corruption after he assumed office, Chaudhry claimed. When people do not have money to buy medicines then how can a prime minister live lavishly?” said Fawad Chaudhry. “They [the previous government] had ordered cars worth Rs980 million for one SAARC conference,” Chaudhry said, adding that the maintenance expenditure of the cars amounted to Rs350m. He said that previous governments had left the country up to its eyeballs in debt by spending huge amounts of money on extravagance. The new premier was trying to repay this debt. He further said that the budget allocated to state institutions like Pakist...

Czech Republic footballer Josef Sural killed in auto crash in Turkey

Czech Republic international Josef Sural was killed and six other Alanyaspor players were injured Monday when their van crashed on the way home from a Turkish league soccer match. The 28-year-old Sural died in the hospital during emergency surgery, The six other players were reported to be in stable condition. Cavusoglu said Sural and his six teammates hired a private luxury van to return from a game at Kayserispor in central Turkey. The crash occurred near the entrance to the town of Alanya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Cavusoglu said the driver of the van was being questioned by police. “Our pain is huge,” Cavusoglu said. State-run Anadolu Agency said the van veered off the road and overturned. It identified the injured players as Wanderson Baiano, Steven Caulker, Isaac Sackey, Papiss Demba Cisse, Welinton Souza and Djalma Campos. He said Sural’s wife rushed to the hospital where he informed her of the player’s death. Sural had two young daughters, he said. Sural, a forw...

Pakistan News Urdu Fast

Search This Blog