US not to pay $300m aid to Pak army

The Pentagon will not pay Pakistan $300 million in military reimbursements after US secretary of defense Ash Carter decided not to tell Congress that Pakistan was taking adequate action against the Haqqani network, a US official said.

Relations between the two countries have been frayed over the past decade, with US officials frustrated by what they term Islamabad's unwillingness to act against Islamist groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.

"The funds could not be released to the government of Pakistan at this time because the secretary has not yet certified that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani network," Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said on Wednesday.

The $300 million comes under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), a US Defense Department program to reimburse allies that have incurred costs in supporting counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations. Pakistan is the largest recipient.

"This decision does not reduce the significance of the sacrifices that the Pakistani military has undertaken over the last two years," Stump said.

Meanwhile, The US has added the Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ur-Ahrar to its list of global terrorists, triggering sanctions against a faction that has staged multiple attacks on civilians, religious minorities and soldiers.

Pakistan welcomed the decision. Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for at least five major attacks in Pakistan since December, including the Easter Sunday bombing in a public park that killed 70 people in the city of Lahore. The group is a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban movement that has also declared loyalty to Islamic State's leadership in the Middle East.