US to 'curtail aid to Pakistan'

Pakistan's bottomfeeding on American aid is about to end unless it terminates its policy of covertly using terrorism to further its frontiers, the Obama administration has conveyed to Islamabad, amid indications that the US is also making Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's proposed visit to Washington conditional to meeting this objective.

The rethink — or at least holding back the announcement — of the visit comes after the administration conveyed to Islamabad that it will not certify the effectiveness of Pakistan counterterrorism operation to Congress to enable passage of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), the military reimbursement aid that goes towards keeping Pakistan solvent.

As part of its rentier-state ethos, Pakistan provides logistical support to US and coalition forces in Afghanistan and in turn bills Washington for reimbursement. Pakistan has extracted more than $13 billion from the US since the coalition forces swooped into Afghanistan.

US renewed The CFS last year on condition that Pakistan would intensify its anti-terror fight. But true to form, Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment has again suckered Washington fooling the US by keeping the death from illnesses of Taliban supremo Mullah Omar and Jalalludin Haqqani while trying to manage their succession.

Meanwhile, India yesterday said it has urged Pakistan against meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders ahead of rare talks between the two countries' top security advisers in New Delhi, hiking tensions between the arch rivals.

The foreign ministry said it would be inappropriate for Pakistan's National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz to hold the meeting tomorrow in Delhi just before scheduled talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.

However, Pakistan said it will push ahead with the meeting despite India's "advice", calling the pro-independence leaders "genuine stakeholders" in efforts to find a solution to the dispute over the Kashmir region.

India cancelled talks with Pakistan last year between their foreign secretaries, outraged over a similar meeting that took place.