Monitoring Desk: Resentful over Donald Trump’s infamous anti-Pakistan tweet, the Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari lambasted the US President, saying the latter’s derogatory remarks were “deeply hurtful” to the people of Pakistan who rendered unprecedented sacrificed in the war of terror.
“I understand how the tweet is an emotional reflection of the American people, however, it is hurtful to our country owing to the innumerable sacrifices we have made in the war against terrorism,” Bilawal Bhutto said in an interview with Fox News, a US News Channel.
His remarks followed a questioned in which he was asked to comment about what the US President Donald Trump wrote on his Twitter account on January 1, 2018, bashing Pakistan for not having done enough against terrorism despite receiving $33 billion over a decade from the United States.
The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018
Bilawal – whose mother late Benazir Bhutto also fell victim to a terrorist attack in Rawalpindi in on December 27, 2008 – clarified that Pakistan received the amount from the US “in exchange for services rendered by Pakistan in the fight against extremism.”
The Chairman PPP also said Pakistan had wrongly been blamed for allegedly supporting the militant outfits in Afghanistan as the United States with the assistance of International forces failed to liberate war-torn Afghanistan from the menace of terrorism but they expected Pakistan to curb the militancy all alone.
Bilawal Bhutto remarked that Pakistan had witnessed a 75 decrease in terror-related incidents in its territory but, on the other hand, the Kabul government yet even lacked administrative control over 45 percent of Afghanistan.
But Bilawal stressed the need for all stakeholders – Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States – to ensure collective efforts to defeat terrorism.