No US Aid To Pakistan Until It Takes ‘Irreversible’ Action On Terror, Says US Congress Report Ahead Of Imran Khan Visit

A United States (US) congressional report has said that economic aid to Pakistan will remain suspended until it demonstrates ‘decisive and irreversible’ action on terror groups LeT and Al-Qaeda that operate from its territory, Tribune has reported.

“Pakistan is a haven for numerous Islamist extremist and terrorist groups, and successive Pakistani governments are widely believed to have tolerated and even supported some of these as proxies in Islamabad’s historical conflicts with its neighbours,” the independent Congressional Research Service (CRS) had said in its latest report.

While not considered as an official view of the Congress, the report is prepared by a bipartisan research wing of the Congress to help the lawmakers in making informed decisions on issues.

The development comes before Pakistani PM Imran Khan’s US visit as the country grapples with economic woes due to the balance of payments crisis. All economic assistance from the US to Pakistan had been stopped in January 2018 at the directions of US President Donald Trump.

The visit is being keenly watched in Pakistan as it faces an uncertainty prevails in its economy, having had to resort to loans and favours from countries to meet its deficits.

Arresting the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed is being seen as an attempt by Pakistan to placate President Trump before the visit. The action, however, has been termed as farcical within in US. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, responsible for foreign policy legislation and oversight had earlier tweeted that it had the knowledge of Saeed living freely in Pakistan.