Hillary, Trump distrust Pak |
Pakistan has got caught up in the US electoral skirmish after frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both zeroed in on the country`s support for terrorism despite milking Washington for billions of dollars in aid.Called out publicly by the candidates and told by the Obama administration that it will have to fork out its own money to buy US military hardware, Islamabad lashed out at its benefactor, saying the American aid it got was "peanuts," and it would figure out other ways to buy F16s, for which the US Congress denied Pakistan subsidy. US taxpayers have been forced to cough up more than $33 billion to Pakistan in direct aid and in reimbursements for counterterrorism efforts through "coalition support funds," ostensibly for its support in the war on terror. That includes $3.8 billion in "foreign military financing" (FMF) funds, subsidy that Pakistan uses to buy military hardware like F-16s that have little relevance against terrorists.Its de facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz warned that if the US did not fund F-16s, Pakistan would look for other options.
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