Islamabad's Ambassador to U.S. urges Pak-Americans to act as bridge between the two nations

Lahore [Pakistan], July 16 (ANI): After the Congressional panel of the United States approved a bill that suggests conditional assistance to Islamabad's civil and military, Islamabad's Ambassador to the U.S. Aizaz Chaudhry has urged Pakistani-American community to act as a bridge between the two countries. The envoy lauded that the Pakistani-American community was playing a very significant role in various fields of life in the U.S. and urged to act as a bridge between the two countries. Describing Islamabad's relationship with Washington as 'extremely important', Aizaz Chaudhry has said those who commit a crime in the name of religion, do not present a true picture of Islam, The Express Tribune reported. "Islam is a religion of peace, love and tolerance," he said, while addressing a local event in Virginia, U.S. A proposal has been submitted for consideration before a key Congressional panel of the United States to make the civil and military aid to Pakistan conditional to Islamabad's support to the fight against the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and other homegrown militant groups. Concened over the tense relations between Washington and Islamabad, Aizaz Chaudhry has been vocal about the fact that Islamabad seeks to have a broad-based and sustainable relationship with Washington on several occasions. Speaking at the Ambassador Series Programme, organised by the World Affairs Council in May this year, Chaudhry said, "Whenever Pakistan and the U.S. worked together in the past, both the countries benefitted and it had yielded positive results." Washington believes that Islamabad has not done enough to persuade the Afghan Taliban to renounce violence nor acted against the Haqqani and network, based in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The draft bill titled 2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations was placed for deliberation before members of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. Pakistan has received billions in U.S. aid since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. (ANI)