Pakistan govt ‘ready for exchanges’ with Pompeo as US halts military funding

Pakistan’s new government said it will “have exchanges” with Mike Pompeo over Washington’s cancellation of a $300 million disbursement for the Pakistani military when the US secretary of state visits Islamabad on Wednesday. The US halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds (CSF) due to Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil, Reuters reports. The US has now withheld $800 million from the CSF so far this year. “On the 5th… Pompeo will be arriving, and we will have a chance to sit down with him. There will be exchanges,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said late on Sunday night. Qureshi argued that the US was not justified in cutting the $300 million because it was intended to reimburse Pakistan’s military for money spent fighting the Taliban and other militants threatening US troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies providing safe havens for the militants.