A prominent Afghan lawmaker today asked the US to stop all financial and military aid to Pakistan, including sale of F-16 jets, and impose economic sanctions, saying that the Pakistani government was providing safe havens to terrorists.
"We ask the US Government to stop all its financial and military aid to Pakistan, including F-16, and impose tough economic sanctions on Pakistan because of its support to terrorist group," Mohammad Naeem Hamidzai Lalai, a member of Afghan Parliament from Kandahar city said.
Lalai is currently on a visit to the UN headquarters in New York and Washington wherein he has been meeting members of the international community, US Government officials and Congressmen briefing them about the continued terrorist safe havens inside Pakistan.
"Instead of the US helping Pakistan with military aid, they can help Afghanistan with the same exact aid. Not only Pakistan has provided safe havens to terrorists, they have also violated the international border and attacked the Afghan security force inside Afghanistan," he told PTI.
Lalai said he and other members of the visiting Afghan delegation has been telling the US official and lawmakers that the US Government should not help or support those countries who train and support terrorist organisation.
"Instead sanctions must be imposed on such countries, to stop them from doing so," he said.
"The United States has to realise that the roots of terrorism cannot be eradicated unless its financial aid to Pakistan is stopped. The earlier the better," he said and warned that the government and people of Pakistan are getting ready to take action against the country if it continues with its current policy.
Prominent among these include launching of civil movement inside Balochistan and border areas of Pakistan.
"We can go to the extent of shutting down the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul," he said.
"These terrorist groups are all trained and raised in Multan, Punjab and other parts of the country. They not only killed innocent Afghan citizens, they have also inflicted heavy casualties to the Americans in Afghanistan," he said.
"The American Congressmen, Senators all know this," he said.
"I am not saying that every Pakistani is a terrorist, but every terrorist has a link in Pakistan. They are either trained or their finances are linked with Pakistan," Lalai said.
