A US Congressman Ted Poe on Monday termed Pakistan a “backstabbing nation” while asserting that he was supporting Defense Secretary James Mattis’s decision to withhold funding to Pakistan.
“Under current United States policy, countries such as Pakistan receive reimbursement of “Coalition Support Funds” for aiding the United States in the war against terrorism. Under the National Defense Authorisation Act, the Secretary of Defense must be able to verify that the backstabbing nation of Pakistan has “taken sufficient against the Haqqani network” in the fight against terrorism,” a note published by Ted Poe on Twitter read as.
Extending support to the decision taken by the defense secretary Ted Poe took to Twitter that “pleased to see the administration bring our misguided policy on Pakistan into the review and am encouraged by this step revoking funding to our Benedict Arnold Ally.”
Ted Poe is the Chairman of the Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee. Ted Poe’s response came days after the US affirmed that it was not giving Pakistan $350 million as coalition support fund stating that Islamabad has not taken “sufficient actions” against the Haqqani network.
— Ted Poe (@JudgeTedPoe) July 24, 2017
“Secretary Mattis has informed congressional defense committees that he was not able to certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient actions against the Haqqani Network to permit full reimbursement of Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Coalition Support Funds (CSF),” PTI quoted Stump as saying.
Former Defence Secretary Ashton Carter had also refused to certify that Pakistan was taking action against the terrorist group. “Pakistan has been reimbursed USD 550 million of the USD 900 million the country was authorised in FY16 CSF. With the Secretary’s decision, there is no additional FY16 CSF available to Pakistan. The Secretary decided to request reprogramming of the funds to retain the ability to use those funds for other requirements,” US Defence Department Spokesman Adam Stump said.
–Source: PTI
