A bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on Monday to use aid funds that were meant for Pakistan to finance infrastructure projects in the US instead.
Representatives Thomas Massie (Republican – Kentucky) and Mark Sanford (Republican – South Carolina) introduced the bill that proposes to reallocate the funding from the US Agency for International Development and US State Department to the country’s Highway Trust Fund, local daily from Washington DC The Hill reported.
“When the American people support other nations, our generosity shouldn’t be used to reward terrorists with US taxpayer dollars,” Sanford said, according to the daily. “Couple this with the fact that the Highway Trust Fund will be $111 billion short by 2026, and it simply makes financial sense to repurpose these funds for our infrastructure.”
Senator Rand Paul (Republican – Kentucky) had introduced a bill in January, calling for the US to reallocate its aid to Pakistan – a country he said “persecutes Christians and imprisons people such as the doctor that helped us get Osama bin Laden”.
The bills were introduced on Monday after the Donald Trump administration suspended military aid to Pakistan in January and demanded “decisive action” against Taliban factions based in the country. Islamabad will not receive nearly $1.3 billion (Rs 8,238 crore) in annual aid from now on.
On January 1, US President Donald Trump had claimed that Pakistan had given his country nothing but “lies and deceit” in return for $33 billion (Rs 2.10 lakh crore) in aid over the last 15 years.
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