SLAMABAD: Pakistan's military has said that a cut in US aid will not affect its anti terror efforts as Washington confirmed that it would withhold some $800m in assistance to the country's armed forces.
Pakistan has long been considered by Washington as a vital ally in the war against terror but their relationship moved towards decline since the unilateral US raid that killed the al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, just next door to the military academy, in Abbottabad town in May.
Pakistan's military suffered a huge blow to its reputation when bin Laden was found hiding at a two-hour distance from the capital, Islamabad, and its inability to detect US helicopters as they flew into hunt the world's top fugitive.
In a sign of strained relations, Pakistan expelled more that 100 US military trainers, restricted visas for US officials and halted CIA operations from its airbase in Baluchistan province.
Responding to a cut in military aid, Pakistan's military spokesman major general Athar Abbas said: "This move would have no significant effect on Pakistan's anti-terror efforts. We will continue our operations against militants as before."
Gen Abbas said that the army had received no formal notification of any aid being cut but he pointed out that the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, had already declared that cash reimbursements to the military, known as coalition support funds, should be redirected to the civilian government, where it was more needed.
He said that two major military operations currently under way in the Mohmand and Kurram tribal regions were being run without external support and would continue. "The al-Qaida and other military groups operating in Pakistan were not only a threat to us but to others," he added.
The White House Chief of Staff, Bill Daley admitted on Sunday that the relationship between the two countries was experiencing difficulties and that some of the aid flow would now be stopped. "It's a complicated relationship in a very difficult, complicated part of the world," he told ABC's This Week programme.
The $800 million in military aid and equipment is almost one-third of the total US aid of over $2 billion. The New York Times said some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the US wants to send but which Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armor and bomb-disposal gear that were withdrawn or held up after Pakistan ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks.
Pakistan's daily The News reported on Monday that a 10-point list was given some time back by the US to the GHQ, compliance of which would determine how much and when the flow of money would restart.
The report said that Pakistan had taken positive action on two points and had failed to act on another two while the rest of the demands were pending. The two points Pakistan complied with were providing access to US and CIA officials to the family of Osama bin Laden and allowing the US experts to visit and inspect the Abbottabad compound where Osama was killed and taken away.
The main point where Pakistan failed to comply was with the US demand to act against factories where explosive devices were being manufactured, delaying the matter so long that people involved in it managed to escape. All this happened while the US was watching these compounds through satellites, it said.
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