$33 billion

Being a sovereign country, Pakistan is not bound to pay heed to the orders of any other country. The recent insidious remarks of Trump regarding Pakistan are nothing more than the president’s mere efforts to mask the apparent defeat of the US in Afghanistan.

The aid referred to in the tweets is actually the price paid for the services rendered by Pakistan to the US. A firm response should be given by our politicians, diplomats, and armed forces in unison to record our unanimous rejection of these ill-thought-out allegations.

Mohammad Khalid Bhatti

Rawalpindi

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This refers to US President Donald Trump’s latest tweet in which he talked about the $33 billion aid given to Pakistan over the past 15 years. He accused the latter of not fulfilling its obligations. Such accusations are not something new and the Trump administration is notorious of giving such statements. However the entire episode reveals corrupt and visionless mediocrity that has ruled this country over past five decades. This is what happens when a country is run by men hostage to their conflicts of interest and who lack moral high ground because of numerous skeletons in their own closets.

It is time to follow the Quaid’s vision and make this country a modern democratic welfare state and not a theocratic state which Zia and others wanted this country to be. Pakistan needs an independent judiciary which can stand up and hold any citizen accountable, irrespective of his status or affiliation with any institution, for criminal or financial crimes. The state must come down on all those fanning sectarian and ethnic divides and nobody should be allowed to form private militias.

Malik Tariq Ali

Lahore