Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistani Prime Minister.

:: Emphasising that terrorism is the biggest challenge confronting the world in the 21st century, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday called on the international community to support Islamabad’s fight against the menace.

In an address to the nation delivered on the occasion of the country’s 70th Independence Day, Prime Minister Abbasi said that Pakistan has rendered unparalleled sacrifices in the fight against this menace as well as for the world peace.

“Our armed forces, law enforcing agencies and the people have written imperishable stories of sacrifices in this regard. Now, the time has come for the international community not only to acknowledge those sacrifices by rising above their interests in the region but also to fully support Pakistan in taking the fight against terrorism to its logical conclusion,” he said.

Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and highly destructive phenomenon in recent years.

The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009.

Pakistan has long been accused by its neighbours India and Afghanistan and western nations like the United States and the United Kingdom of its involvement in terrorist activities in the region and beyond.

The United States has recently withheld the disbursement of USD 350 million aid to Pakistan after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis informed the Congress that Islamabad has not taken sufficient measures to counter the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network

According to reports, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis informed the congressional defense committees that he was not able to certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani Network as per the requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act to permit full reimbursement of Coalition Support Funds.

Pakistan was allotted USD 900 million aid through the special fund by the United States. Pakistan has already received USD 550 million funds out of the allotted USD 900 million aid. Mattis’s latest decision will now lead to USD 50 million aid to Pakistan being withheld as the Congress last year had rescinded the remaining USD300 million funds.

However, Mattis also said that Pakistan still has time to influence the secretary’s certification decision in FY17 by taking action against the Haqqani network.

This comes as the Donald Trump administration retained Pakistan’s name in its list of nations and regions providing “safe havens” to terrorists.

In its annual ‘Country Report on Terrorism’, as mandated by the Congress, the State Department said that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) continue to operate, train, organise and fundraise inside Islamabad and Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan.

“Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or Haqqani, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process,” the State Department said.

“Pakistan did not take sufficient action against other externally focused groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2016, which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan,” the report said.