US not satisfied with Pak measures against militants

WASHINGTON: Top US leaders doubled down on Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during their meetings here Saturday in which they vociferously declared that the Trump administration could take "decisive action" to take out militants.

The Pakistan Embassy had denied any such meetings, including the one apparently with the Vice President Mike Pence at his residence. However, the House chairperson of the Asia Subcommittee and its ranking member, Brad Sherman, tweeted a picture of their meeting later. "I had the opportunity to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who is here on an unofficial trip. We had a good discussion on all the issues concerning the US-Pakistan relationship," Congressman Sherman said.

The administration has been accusing Islamabad of providing sanctuaries instead of taking action against militant groups.

The issue was raised once again at these meetings with the prime minister. "We are still seeking actions from Pakistan that we have not seen," a high level official confirmed to the media adding, "We are continuing to look for real actions and not word on the Taliban and the Haqqani sanctuaries." This was the third time in last two weeks that the administration officials asked Pakistan to raise the stakes. Even, Ambassador Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the State Department had also remarked that the US has not yet seen "decisive or sustained changes" in Pakistan's behaviour.

The official, requesting not to be named, said that President Trump has "made it clear that he is not satisfied with the action taken by Pakistan. We have communicated clear to Pakistan to what we mean by decisive action."

The official also did not give out any timeline, yet maintained that it was bounded by the time limit that kicked in the Congress on a number of financial and security assistance to Pakistan. Pakistan was stripped off financial support last month. The Congress had authorised up to $900 million in the Coalition Support Fund for fiscal year 2017, and the Foreign Military Financing of $255 million for fiscal year 2016 were suspended. Several members of the Financial Action Task Force, an anti-money-laundering watchdog, voted last month to place Pakistan on its grey list to give the country three months to make changes.

"It's Pakistan's choice in which direction it wants to take the future of the relationship," the official said adding that the US was still engaging Pakistani leaders and wanted to address some of Islamabad's concerns.