ADDRESSING the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Neighbours of Afghanistan in Samarkand on Thursday, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar urged the international community not to abandon Afghan people at this critical juncture and provide them humanitarian assistance to survive. She warned growing voices, especially in the West, who are advocating a complete break from Afghanistan, not to offload its problems to the neighbourhood and walk away, adding misplaced approaches need to be re-assessed.
The apprehensions expressed by the Minister are not without a reason as, like before, Afghan people have been left to suffer with attending consequences for the already strained economy of Pakistan. As the world community is not ready to have even normal trading ties with the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, there is an upsurge in the smuggling of goods and dollars from Pakistan, creating enormous challenges for the country (Pakistan). It is also because of the indifferent attitude of the influential countries that the problem of terrorism is assuming dangerous dimensions and the Minister rightly highlighted the issue saying more needs to be done to eradicate the foothold of terrorist organizations from Afghanistan, without distinction and in a concerted and uniform manner. Greater cooperation and coordination with the Interim Afghan Government remains critical for this purpose and this should be done before it becomes a formidable threat again. Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to strike inside Afghanistan against those who are carrying out terrorist activities against Pakistan but such a course will have its own consequences. The world community should, therefore, extend necessary cooperation to the Afghan Government to address the challenge on its own.
