Pakistan has yet again reiterated its all-out support to Afghanistan to avert the humanitarian crisis which is looming large on the horizon as winter is fast setting in and Afghan people are looking around and waiting for much needed assistance to pour in from all over the world.
Pakistan has all along been supporting the people of Afghanistan’s urgent requirements for assistance and calling for release of frozen funds of Afghanistan by the international community ever since the US-led NATO forces left war-torn country Afghanistan and Taliban assumed power a couple of months back.
All-out support for the people of Afghanistan was reiterated yet again by no less a person than Prime Minister Imran Khan while presiding over the meeting of the Apex Committee on Afghanistan. This reiteration of support to the Afghan people has come on the eve of 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers, held in Islamabad on Sunday.
Pakistan is hosting the important moot of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers after 41 years, the initiative for which was taken by the OIC Summit Chair, Saudi Arabia, on November 29, to convene the meeting to consider the situation in Afghanistan. Pakistan had not only strongly welcomed the initiative but also offered to host the moot in Islamabad which was accepted by Saudi Arabia forth with.
OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha welcomed the move and said in a statement the other day that they looked forward to the upcoming meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad for producing a positive outcome that would end the humanitarian plight of the Afghan people.
Afghanistan is a founding member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which has 57 members and five states as observers. As part of the Islamic Ummah, the OIC member countries are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood with the people of Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been time and again emphatically telling the international community at large that if Afghanistan is not supported but abandoned a new war could be started there and warned that to abandon Afghanistan at this critical stage would be a historical mistake as instability in Afghanistan could give way to renewed conflict and also trigger an exodus of refugees.
The backdrop of this important moot is the serious humanitarian situation in Afghanistan which is looming large with winter fast setting in and much of the assistance forthcoming in the form of food items, medicines, blankets and such like. Pakistan on its part has been dispatching consignments of food items, medicines, blankets frequently, and has also allowed India even to send food grains to Afghanistan through its territory. China has also announced that it will continue helping the people of Afghanistan. But still not much help was forthcoming from the international community and frozen funds of Afghanistan were also not being defreezed.
According to the estimates of the United Nations, as much as 60 percent of Afghanistan’s 38 million people are threatened with crisis levels of hunger and the situation is getting worse with every passing day. World Food Programme has also warned that 3.2 million children in Afghanistan are at the grave risk of acute malnutrition
And, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that a large number of 665,000 people have become newly displaced within Afghanistan between January to September 2021. These people are in addition to 2.9 million people who are already internally displaced in that country.
Needless to emphasize here that the advent of winter has further exacerbated the situation and timely help is not forthcoming and the people of Afghanistan are left unattended in this very critical and difficult time then the situation could aggravate into a major humanitarian crisis about which Pakistan has been warning the international community.
Over the years, the OIC has been extending consistent support to the people of Afghanistan. But today, more than ever before, the people of Afghanistan need support from the international community, including the OIC.
As stated above, Pakistan on its part had consistently been engaged in intense diplomatic outreach, illustrated by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s contacts with world leaders, foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s numerous bilateral interactions and visits to four neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, namely Iran, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, establishment of the six neighbouring countries’ platform at the initiative of Pakistan, participation in the Moscow format meetings, the hosting of the Troika Plus meeting in Islamabad and other visits and engagements evolving around Afghanistan.
By and large, the international community is concerned over the situation in Afghanistan. International partners of Afghanistan also want to help.
Needless to mention here that OIC, being the world’s second largest organization after the United Nations, is the collective of the Islamic Ummah can and must play its much expected role in addressing the humanitarian needs of our Afghan brethren, sisters and children. Any positive move on the part of the OIC ‘s leadership would hopefully also be helpful in galvanizing other international actors to come forward and extend a much-wanted and needed helping hand to the people of Afghanistan. Continued engagement of the international community with Afghanistan is therefore an imperative to say the least.
Against this backdrop, the upcoming Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad on December 19 would hopefully be providing an opportunity to considering practical engagements and come up with concrete steps to help and address the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan.
It is not only expected but also very much hoped that besides expressing solidarity, the OIC member states through their Foreign Ministers and rest of the international community including the European Union and five permanent members of the UN Security Council attending the important moot will also be considering and making pledges of the financial and in-kind support and assistance which the people of Afghanistan are very keenly looking for.
If hopefully a humanitarian crisis, which looming large over Afghanistan, is averted as well as economic stability assured then peace in the country can be consolidated and quite obviously this will also have a regional peace dividend. Peace in Afghanistan will mean peace and security in Pakistan indeed.
