If the US takes any action against Pakistan's national security, a response will be given in line with the public's expectations, said Pakistan’s Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor, Pakistani media reported Wednesday.
With regards to Pakistan’s actions against the Haqqanis network, Ghafoor said the "effects of these operations cannot be visible immediately. Only time will show how effective these operations were [in establishing peace within the region]."
Pakistan Army carried out operations against the Haqqanis and in North Waziristan after the capacity of security forces in the region was increased, according to Pakistan officials.
In response to a question regarding US drone attacks in Pakistan's settled areas, Ghafoor said the country will respond to such acts according to the aspirations of its people.
Commenting on the recent developments pertaining to the Pakistan-US relations, Ghafoor said no amount of compulsion can pressurize Pakistan on how to act.
He was responding to the United States' threat to withhold aid worth $255 million to Pakistan following US President Donald Trump’s Tweet, wherein the latter said the US had foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in financial assistance over the past 15 years.
"No amount of coercion can dictate us how to continue," he said speaking on Geo News' program Capital Talk.
"We wish to move forward through cooperative engagement but will not compromise on self-respect and dignity," he added.
Meanwhile, former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in his article published Wednesday said that "since 9/11, Pakistan has consistently played a double game". He suggests that it is the time for Washington to end Pakistan's double games.
In his article, Khalilzad has made six recommendations to end Pakistan's double games.
• Sanction the ISI - Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency - and individual Pakistanis who are involved in supporting insurgents and terrorists.
• Undertake unilateral US military strikes on insurgent targets in Pakistani territory.
• Prepare to designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism unless it changes course and abandons support for terrorists.
• Suspend US’s economic assistance to Pakistan.
• Together with the major regional victims of Pakistan’s actions, including Afghanistan and India, US should hold Islamabad accountable before regional and international organizations.
• It will be important to reach out to the people of Pakistan and document Pakistan’s support for terrorists and extremists that has brought about the change in US approach to their country.
On Tuesday, the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said that the United States would continue to withhold $255 million in assistance to Pakistan until the country became a better partner in America’s fight against terrorism.
“Pakistan has played a double game for years. They work with us at times, and they also harbor the terrorists that attack our troops in Afghanistan. That game is not acceptable to this administration,” Haley said in a news conference.
This comes after on Monday US President Donald Trump signaled his dissatisfaction with Pakistan on Twitter.
“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 and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he tweeted. “They give safe havens to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Pakistan’s defense minister responded on Twitter saying the US has “given us nothing but invective and mistrust. They overlook cross-border safe havens of terrorists who murder Pakistanis.”
Trump has signaled his frustration with Pakistan in the fight against terror since he lashed out at the country during an August speech outlining his strategy in Afghanistan.
That month was also the first time the administration said it would withhold aid money.
Haley added on Tuesday that “the president is willing to go to great lengths to stop all funding to Pakistan as they continue to harbor and support terrorism.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting on Tuesday, attended by the country's Foreign, Interior and Defense Ministers, along with chiefs of staff of the army, navy and air force.
In a statement following the meeting, the NSC expressed "deep disappointment" at recent US leadership comments, which it said were "completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation".
It said there had been close interaction with the US following Trump's initial policy statements regarding South Asia, and that recent visits to Pakistan by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis were "robust and forward-looking."
Before this, the US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster also said that Islamabad only goes after terrorists “selectively” while it “sustains and supports others who act as an arm of its foreign policy.”
In an interview with Voice of America, McMaster said the US president’s tweet was not a “blame game” rather termed it America’s “effort to communicate clearly to Pakistan that our relationship can no longer bear the weight of contradictions, and that we have to really begin now to work together to stabilize Afghanistan.”
He added that doing so would be a “huge benefit to Pakistan”.
McMaster also said that Pakistan is “operating against the interested of its own people” by “providing safe havens and support bases for Taliban and Haqqani network leadership” who “perpetuate hell in portions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.”