Will not allow Pakistan to be treated like a 'hired gun' to fight someone else's war: PM Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he would not allow Pakistan to be treated like a "hired gun" to fight someone else's war, amid growing demands from the Trump administration to do more to combat terrorism emanating from its soil.

The ties between Washington and Islamabad strained, especially after President Donald Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August last year, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan.

In September, the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups. Last month, Trump said castigated Pakistan once again, saying it was not doing "a damn thing" for America in curbing terrorism.

Prime Minister Khan, in an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday, said: "I would never want to have a relationship where Pakistan is treated like a hired gun given money to fight someone else's war," Khan said, referring to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union and the ongoing war on terror.

"It not only cost us human lives, devastation of our tribal areas, but it also cost us our dignity," he said.

When asked to elaborate on the ideal nature of relationship that he would like to have with Washington, Khan added: "For instance, our relationship with China is not one-dimensional. It's a trade relationship between two countries. We want a similar relationship with the US."
When asked if he wanted relations between Pakistan and the US to "warm up", Khan responded: "Who would not want to be friends with a superpower?"
He said the exchange of words with President Trump on Twitter was "about being blamed for deeply flawed US policies the military approach to Afghanistan."