01 September, 2017
"The Department notified the Congress on August 30 of our intent to obligate $255 million in FY 2016 Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan".
The Foreign Military Financing provides grants and loans to help countries purchase the US weapons and defence equipment and for acquiring defence services and military training in the United States.
The state department revealed that the decision was consistent with the new South Asian policy which would give leverage to Trump-led America to review level of cooperation with Pakistan prior to committing new security assistance resources.
The United States is withholding a $255 million military aid payment from Pakistan until it cracks down on what President Donald Trump has called "safe havens" for anti-Afghanistan militant groups, officials said.
The military aid to Pakistan was committed by the previous Obama administration in 2015, but the Trump administration has attached new conditions to further delay the release.
The administration's notification to Congress of an indefinite "pause" in installments on a $1.1 billion military assistance package for Pakistan represented the administration's first step to make good on those promised measures.
The State Department clarified that Washington valued its ties with Islamabad and wanted to see it prosper but at the same time "it also wanted Islamabad to do more to eradicate terrorism".
Mattis did not respond to questions on timeline, if any, for Pakistan to take action against terrorists and terrorist groups.
Pakistan maintains that it already is doing everything it can to eliminate terrorists in the country, and has been more successful at doing so than its next-door neighbor, Afghanistan, even with the help of thousands of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and USA troops.
"Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our efforts in the region".
The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday rubbished United States (US) Gen John Nicholson's "unacceptable" claim that Washington is aware of the Afghan Taliban leadership's presence in Peshawar and Quetta, saying that terrorist safe havens are present in Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
The Pakistani lawmakers have said the country has suffered $123 billion loss in the fight against terrorism besides 70,000 people suffered casualties. The US is not providing billions of dollars any longer to Pakistan'.
This comes after Pakistan expressed its anger over the United States President Donald Trump's accusation that the country has been providing safe havens to militants.
The resolution was passed amid growing frustrations among the Pakistani politicians following the hard stance adopted by President Donald Trump, mainly regarding the persistent support the terror groups receive in the country.
