Humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan
CIVIL and military leadership of Pakistan have all along been supporting and calling for durable peace and stability in Afghanistan as peace and stability there is of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Army Chief General Javed Bajwa in their interactions with the world leaders and diplomats have also been strongly pleading for immediate financial, food and medical assistance for the people of Afghanistan on humanitarian grounds.
On the quite important and welcome initiative of Saudi Arabia, the OIC Summit Chair, Pakistan hosted the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad on 19 December 2021 which reviewed the situation in Afghanistan and developments taking place there following the departure of US-led NATO forces from there after failing in achieving the desired objectives even after 20 years and Taliban coming into power there.
As is already well known within the country and abroad, the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers after day long deliberations had unanimously adopted a comprehensive resolution pledging to play a leading role in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to on the brink of starvation people of Afghanistan, agreed on establishing a Humanitarian Trust Fund, launching of a Food Security Programme and engagement with the World Health Organization (WHO) for securing vaccines and medical supplies.
The Humanitarian Trust Fund is to be operationalized by about March 2022,
According to the estimates of the world body, United Nations, almost 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s 38 million people are facing crisis level of hunger and that situation was getting worse every day.
World Food Programme has warned that 3.2 million children in Afghanistan are at the risk of acute malnutrition.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), large number of 665000 people have been newly displaced within Afghanistan between January to September 2021 in addition to the 2.9 million people already internally displaced in that country.
As already stated, Pakistan has all along been supporting the people of Afghanistan and this was reiterated only on Friday in the third meeting of the Apex Committee on Afghanistan in Islamabad presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
After due deliberations, Pakistan once again vowed not to abandon Afghan people in time of need and that Pakistan is committed to provide all out support to the Afghan people to avert a humanitarian crisis there and also welcomed UN General Assembly appeal to the international community for aid to Afghanistan.
On its own part, Pakistan has already announced a Rs 5 billion assistance package that includes food items, life saving drugs, winter supplies and shelter besides assistance in the fields of health, education and training.
For streamlining and coordinating the provision and supplies to the people of Afghanistan on humanitarian grounds, Pakistan had established a special cell called the Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination in November 2021 within two months after the departure of US-led NATO forces there in furtherance and continuation of support to the people of Afghanistan.
The special cell so established is headed by Security Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr Moeed Yusuf, and it includes members from the Federal Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Commerce and Interior and also the representatives of Customs, National Logistic Cell, Civil Aviation Authority, State Bank of Pakistan and the Frontier Corps for ensuring smooth flow of people and trade across the borders.
The cell has been and continues to working on comprehensive proposals for expansion of cooperation under the assistance package especially in the fields of health and education.
As a delegation from Pakistan headed by the National Security Advisor is visiting Afghanistan on January 18 and 19 in this regard, it is imperative to briefly mention here the initiatives so far undertaken under the special cell.
Under the humanitarian assistance package of Rs 5 billion announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan is providing 50000 metric tons of wheat among other important items like winter shelters and emergency medical supplies.
Against this, Pakistan has already sent first consignment of 18000 metric tons to Afghanistan.
The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination has already dispatched a team of engineers and technicians to Afghanistan for early completion of three hospitals there for providing relief to the people of the neighbouring war-torn country .
Buildings of the three hospitals namely the Nishtar Hospital, Jalalabad; Jinnah Hospital, Kabul,and; Logari Hospital, Logar have already been completed.
The installation and commissioning of medical equipment worth Rs 2 billion is currently in progress.
For brining the medical equipment in use, a team of four Pakistani engineers along with technicians was working round the clock.
This may also help our brotherly neighbouring country in achieving the Universal Health Coverage.
Furthermore, Over 100,000 people travelling from across Afghan border have also been successfully vaccinated against COVID-19 since November last year.
Out of these, over 51600 and 55000 people have been vaccinated at Torkham and Chaman border crossings respectively.
Ministry of National Health Services has pledged to provide over five lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine for vaccination of the people at the border.
The Ministry of Interior has introduced an elaborate mechanism to facilitate relief activities of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in Afghanistan.
The main objective of these new measures is to facilitate the humanitarian assistance efforts in war-torn Afghanistan and both new INGOs as well as those already registered will be benefiting from it.
An INGO applying for registration would be required to submit a credentials certificate letter from the concerned embassy, proof of registration in the country of origin, and source of funding along with local residence address etc.
The Scrutiny Committee will complete the process within three weeks.Similarly, the process of issuance of visas has also been made less cumbersome and time-consuming.
Time duration for processing visa requests has been reduced to 10 days and entry visas for INGO or international organizations staff wanting to work for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan will be issued without security clearance.
If all augurs well, the world seems to be awakening for calls from Pakistan, UN General Assembly and other sources for providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan in order to avert a looming crisis on urgent and emergency bases.
People of Afghanistan should be rest assured that people and civil and military leadership of Pakistan stands with them in their difficult time and the international community, at large, will also continue to be urged to come forward and provide humanitarian assistance to the suffering people of Afghanistan at the earliest possible.
—The writer is a retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, based in Lahore.
