'Appeasement does not work with US': Shireen Mazari claps back at Trump over tirade against Pakistan

Published November 19, 2018
Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari took to Twitter to respond to Trump's remarks in an interview.
Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari took to Twitter to respond to Trump's remarks in an interview.

A day after United States President Donald Trump claimed that Pakistan "does not do anything for his country", Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari took to Twitter to remind the US head of state of the losses incurred by Pakistan over the years.

"The loss of Pakistani lives in US War on Terror, the free space for Raymond Davis and other operatives, the illegal killings by drone attacks — the list is endless," said Mazari on Monday, adding, "once again history shows appeasement does not work".

While speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Trump attempted to justify his administration's decision at the start of 2018 to pull "military aid" to Pakistan by linking it to Osama bin Laden being found in Pakistan in 2011.

“They [Pakistan] don’t do a damn thing for us,” the US president said.

Mazari called "Trump's tirade against Pakistan" a lesson for those Pakistani leaders "who kept appeasing the US esp after 9/11!".

The minister added: "Whether China or Iran, US policies of containment and isolation do not coincide with Pakistan's strategic interests."

Read: Shireen Mazari calls out Trump's ignorance on US role in destabilising ME

In reply to another tweet calling out Trump over his remarks, Mazari said: "@realDonaldTrump suffers conveniently from perpetual historic amnesia!"

Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani termed Trump's remarks "contrary to the facts" and reminded the US president that "Pakistan is not a client state of the US."

"The US president's language regarding a sovereign state was aggressive," he said. "He should be careful; Pakistan is not a state or colony of the US."

The veteran PPP leader reminded Trump of all that Pakistan did for the US over the years. "The US killed Pakistanis in unauthorised drone attacks, the US sponsored terrorism in Kabul, and a drug industry was created on the Pak-Afghan border for the financial assistance of the US," he said.

"The Pakistani nation is paying the price of political and economic instability due to its alliance with the US."

Former foreign minister Khawaja Asif also took note of Trump's remarks, saying: "We continue to pay in blood for what we did for USA."

Relations between the United States and Pakistan, which began to strain in 2011, reached a new low in January when Trump suspended US security assistance to Islamabad over the alleged presence of Afghan militant groups in Fata. The government as well as the military had rejected the charge as incorrect.

The Inter-Services Public Relations had clarified at the time that that the Coalition Support Fund, received from the US, is reimbursement of money spent for operations in support of the coalition for regional peace.

Osama bin Laden

Speaking of the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden was found in 2011, Trump said in the Fox News interview: "You know, living — think of this — living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion," adding: "I don’t know, I’ve seen nicer."

"But living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there," he continued.

"We give Pakistan $1.3 billion a year... [bin Laden] lived in Pakistan, we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them $1.3 billion a year — which we don’t give them anymore, by the way. I ended it because they don’t do anything for us."

Contrary to Trump's insinuations, former US president Barack Obama, under whom the bin Laden raid was carried out, while speaking at a summit last year had said: "We had no evidence that Pakistan was aware of his presence — that is something that we looked at."

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