Qureshi meets UN chief, calls for ‘urgent action’ on humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday, urged for an “urgent action” to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office, “Qureshi underscored the need for urgent action to address the prevailing dire humanitarian situation in [the] country, calling for the continued political and economic engagement of the international community to end [the] decades-long conflict.”

Qureshi mentioned Pakistan’s role in addressing the situation.

The foreign minister also commented on the Kashmir issue and hoped that the UN would address the situation in Kashmir.

Furthermore, Qureshi also demanded to make the UN Security Council (UNSC) more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable to address the multiple challenges.

Qureshi summarised his meeting in a tweet and said, “Great to meet Antonio Guterres at UNGA and share Pakistan’s key priorities: equitable socio-economic development, stabilisation of Afghanistan and just resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute. We look to the UN to play a central role in addressing and overcoming these challenges.”

According to the FO, the foreign minister also met the president of the 76th session of the general assembly, Abdulla Shahid, on the day and congratulated him on his election to the position.

Qureshi expressed the hope that Shahid’s presence in this important office would help with making progress on important issues on the UN agenda.

PM’S UNGA ADDRESS:

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan sought to cast Pakistan as the victim of American ungratefulness and an international double standard in his address to the UNGA.

In his speech, the prime minister touched on a range of topics that included climate change, global Islamophobia and “the plunder of the developing world by their corrupt elites” — the latter of which he likened to what the East India Company did to India.

It was for India’s government that Khan reserved his harshest words, once again labelling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government “fascist.” But the cricketer turned posh international celebrity turned politician was, in turn, indignant and plaintive as he painted the United States as an abandoner of both Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.

“For the current situation in Afghanistan, for some reason, Pakistan has been blamed for the turn of events, by politicians in the United States and some politicians in Europe,” Khan said. “From this platform, I want them all to know, the country that suffered the most, apart from Afghanistan, was Pakistan when we joined the US war on terror after 9/11.”

He launched into a narrative that began with the United States and Pakistan training mujahedeen — regarded as heroes by the likes of then-President Ronald Reagan, he recalled — during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But Pakistan was left to pick up the pieces — millions of refugees and new sectarian militant groups — when the Soviets and the Americans left in 1989.

Khan said the US sanctioned its former partner a year later, but then came calling again after the 9/11 attacks. Khan said Pakistan’s aid to the US cost 80,000 Pakistan lives and caused internal strife and dissent directed at the state, all while the US conducted drone attacks.

“So, when we hear this at the end. There is a lot of worry in the US about taking care of the interpreters and everyone who helped the US,” he said, referring to Afghanistan. “What about us?”

Instead of a mere “word of appreciation,” Pakistan has received the blame, Khan said.

In his speech, Khan echoed what Shah Mehmood Qureshi told The Associated Press earlier this week on the sidelines at the UN: the international community should not isolate the Taliban, but instead strengthen the current Afghan government for the sake of the people.

He struck an optimistic tone about Taliban rule, saying their leaders had committed to human rights, an inclusive government and not allowing terrorists on Afghan soil. But messages from the Taliban have so far been mixed.

A Taliban founder told the AP earlier this week that the hard-liners would once again carry out executions and amputated hands — though this time after adjudication by judges, including women, and potentially not in public.

“If the world community incentivises them, and encourages them to walk this talk, it will be a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.

Khan also turned his ire on that same community for what he perceives as a free pass given to India.

“It is unfortunate, very unfortunate, that the world’s approach to violations of human rights lacks even-handedness, and even is selective. Geopolitical considerations, or corporate interests, commercial interests often compel major powers to overlook the transgressions of their affiliated countries,” Khan said.

He went through a litany of actions that have “unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community,” he said, including lynchings, pogroms and discriminatory citizenship laws.

As in years past, Khan — who favours delivering his speeches in his British-inflected English, in contrast to Modi’s Hindi addresses — devoted substantial time to Kashmir.

“New Delhi has also embarked on what it ominously calls the ‘final solution’ for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Khan said, rattling off a list of what he termed “gross and systematic violations of human rights” committed by Indian forces.

He specifically decried the “forcible snatching of the mortal remains of the great Kashmiri leader, ” Syed Ali Geelani, who died earlier this month at 91.

Geelani’s family has said authorities took his body and buried him discreetly and without their consent, denying the separatist leader revered in Kashmir a proper Islamic burial. Khan called upon the General Assembly to demand Geelani’s proper burial and rites.

He said Pakistan desires peace, but it is India’s responsibility to meaningfully engage.

 

With additional input from AP

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