Pakistan not fighting terrorism 'to please US': Ahsan Iqbal

NAROWAL: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday said that Pakistan has not been fighting the war against terrorism to "please the United States".

Addressing a workers convention in Narowal, the minister said Pakistan is not making efforts to eradicate terrorism to receive a trophy from US President Donald Trump.

President Trump last week cleared the way for the deployment of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan, backtracking from his promise to rapidly end America´s longest war while pillorying ally Pakistan for offering safe haven to "agents of chaos."

"We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting," he said, warning that vital aid could be cut. “That will have to change and that will change immediately."

"Pakistan knows how to defend itself and its sovereignty," Iqbal stressed.

He said that dozens of people lost their lives to terrorism in 2013, but the situation now is much better than the past.