Talking to media after chairing central core committee meeting of the United Business Group, the UBG Chief Iftikhar Ali Malik said the entire nation is on one page and no one should dare cast evil eye on Pakistan and our world's best armed forces know how to protect the country from any kind of external aggression.
He said that Trump's allegation against Pakistan giving shelter to terrorist outfits was false because Pakistan itself was being attacked by terrorists hiding in the so called Indian consulates in Afghanistan. He urged the US to check India's anti-Pakistan role not only from inside of Afghanistan but also through the enhanced and increased ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.
He suggested the United States to try and negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan instead of using the armed forces. It is both disturbing and disappointing to hear a repeat of Pakistan being pressured to do more to stabilize Afghanistan, he added.
"Pakistan and the United States have been close allies in the fight against terrorism, which is a common threat to all the nations of the world," he said. "As a matter of policy, Pakistan does not allow use of its territory against any country. Instead of relying on the false narrative of safe havens, the US needs to work sincerely with Pakistan to stamp out the menace of terrorism," he added.
Iftikhar Malik said after years of shouldering the heavy lift in Afghanistan and suffering the blowback of an earlier transformational war thirty years ago, Pakistan should not have had to hear recrimination as a non-Nato ally that has given unparalleled colossal sacrifices in life, resources and national trauma to fighting a joint battle against terrorism on the Afghan border.
"There is little mention of the cost Pakistan has incurred or the successes it continues to achieve in clearing terrorism from the region," he added. He further said that the Trump-led US administration should recognize the sacrifices rendering to eradicate terrorism in Pakistan as Pakistan is bearing irrecoverable loss due to its involvement in war on terror.
Iftikhar Ali Malik urged all political parties for setting aside their political differences for the sake of the country and sit down to evolve a joint strategy to tackle US-India diplomatic pressure. He said the United States also has no choice but to use Pakistani roads to resupply its troops in landlocked Afghanistan.
However, he suggested the United States and Pakistan should expand cooperation on the 2013 Joint Action Plan on Trade and Investment as the United States remains Pakistan's largest bilateral export market and a significant source of foreign direct investment.
He said the United States is Pakistan's largest bilateral trading partner. It would be in the interest of both the countries to enhance their trade volume which had been hovering around $5 billion for the last five years, he added.