THE extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in the Federal Capital on Sunday has definitely helped not only sensitize the world community and the Muslim Ummah of the scale of dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan but the very resolution adopted unanimously by it would also have given a ray of hope to the Afghan people as it envisages a roadmap to build foundation of their economic recovery and development.
One may be expecting concrete pledges in the form of financial assistance but given the sanctions on new Afghan setup, it would have been difficult or next to impossible to provide the same to the Afghan people without evolving a proper mechanism for it.
Keeping in view this problem, the OIC decided to establish a humanitarian trust fund to serve as a vehicle to channel humanitarian assistance.
Islamic Development Bank has been asked to expeditiously operationalize this fund by the first quarter of next year.
Whilst the OIC countries are already delivering humanitarian assistance including food and medicines to the Afghan people, it is also important that follow up meetings in the wake of this extraordinary session are also held in order to ensure that substantial pledges are made in the fund in order to bring a visible change in the life of Afghan people who are currently in dire distress because of acute shortages of food and medicines.
The Muslim countries especially having abundant resources will have to contribute in a big manner in order to woo others to join this humanitarian cause.
The OIC meeting also decided to appoint a special envoy on Afghanistan to coordinate aid and assistance efforts, and pursue economic and political engagement with the country.
Since the forum is engaged with many other issues, this is a step in the right direction to ensure focused and sustained approach of the Muslim countries regarding Afghanistan.
Through the special envoy, the OIC will be able to better engage with the Afghan authorities, better assess their immediate requirements as well as formulate medium and long term measures for complete economic recovery of Afghanistan so that it could stand on its own feet.
The OIC decision to launch a food security program will also be a major step to achieve that goal.
According to the OIC resolution, a process will also be commenced with the UN system organizations to devise a road map for mobilizing actions at the relevant fora to unlock the financial and banking channels to resume liquidity and flow of financial and humanitarian assistance.
Certainly, this is the fundamental step to address the economic woes of Afghan people.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans residing abroad want to send remit money back to their families in Afghanistan but they are currently unable to send the same because of the dysfunctional banking system.
These economic sanctions are compounding the problem for the Afghan people, hence, there is a dire need to reboot the banking system of Afghanistan.
The world community especially the important capitals will have to play their role in this regard and as also stated by Prime Minister Imran Khan in his address at the OIC’s moot that the human rights issues must be delinked with the humanitarian assistance.
There are no two opinions if the Afghan situation was not addressed, it will lead to serious consequences such as mass exodus of refugees and the terrorist outfits again emerging and increasing their footprints.
For the thirty eight million Afghan people, the entire world community will also have to support and supplement the OIC’s endeavours towards building a better future for the Afghan people.
Those who destroyed their lives also have a responsibility to come forward and extend assistance for their rehabilitation and reconstruction.
