Outcome of OIC FMs conference on Afghanistan
ON Sunday, 19 December 2021, Pakistan hosted the historic 17th extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), at Islamabad, which was formally convened by the current OIC chair, Saudi Arabia.
This was the largest international gathering ever convened on Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the US/NATO forces from Afghanistan and its takeover by the Taliban government, to mobilize resources to avert an impending major humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
As the US/NATO forces continued to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2020/2021 and the Taliban made efforts to have a dialogue with the former Ghani Administration in Afghanistan to form an all inclusive government as per the Doha Deal, due to Ghani Government’s delaying tactics based on its greed to solely stick to power, a few rounds of talks held remained inconclusive.
As a consequence, with the completion of the withdrawal by 15 August 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, including Kabul without any resistance, because while President Ghani fled Afghanistan on 14 August 2021, the Afghan Army had also disappeared.
As the withdrawal of the last elements of the US/NATO forces had gotten messy, although the Taliban never disturbed the withdrawal operation, after withdrawal, the US and NATO countries adopted a harsh policy towards the Taliban government
. This has happened despite the fact that the Taliban, announced a general amnesty for all Afghans, allowed women to work, vowed that the Afghan soil will not be used against any other country, and they also made their government inclusive by including representatives of other ethnic groups.
As part of their harsh policy, the US and NATO countries announced that the Taliban government in Afghanistan will not be recognized and no direct economic aid will be provided unless the Taliban government practically shows that it was religiously implementing the above stated points.
Even the US government has frozen about $10 billion assets of Afghanistan. Hence, in the last five months the Afghan people have almost been starved as Afghan currency has lost its value, the Taliban government has no money to pay salaries to the employees, conduct trade and the banking system of Afghanistan also stands paralysed. Although Pakistan and some other countries have provided humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, that is too meagre to meet the needs of the Afghan population.
Taking into consideration the gravity of the impending humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and knowing that such a crisis will adversely affect it as a neighbour, the Pakistan government has been making appeals to the world community to help the Afghan people. Due to Pakistan’s advocacy of the Afghan crisis, the current Chairman of the OIC, Saudi Arabia, was kind to convene a special meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC to discuss the looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the humanitarian assistance required to avert the crisis.
Pakistan offered to host the conference, which was held on 19 December 2021 at Islamabad successfully for which Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and its Foreign Ministry deserve congratulations.
The conference was attended by the OIC Secretary General, Foreign Ministers of 57 OIC member countries, special representative of the UN Secretary General and representatives of the United States, European Union, Russia, China and Japan.
A delegation of the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan was also invited and attended the conference to present to the moot the humanitarian crisis, which Afghanistan was facing and the humanitarian assistance required to avert that.
While addressing the conference as a keynote speaker, whereas Prime Minister Imran Khan, highlighted the impending humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and appealed for the world’s urgent assistance to avert that, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister presented various proposals in this regard.
Deliberating on the deteriorating economic situation in Afghanistan and appealing for the required humanitarian assistance the Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also stated that the Taliban government had restored peace and security and done much to address the demands for more inclusiveness with respect for human rights, including the rights of women.
He also stated that his government “has the right to be officially recognised”. The Secretary General OIC, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, other Foreign Ministers and participants expressed their views and recognized the need for the provision of an immediate humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to avert the humanitarian crisis. In his speech the OIC Secretary General also called for strengthening the role of the OIC Mission in Kabul and urged the member states and institutions of the Organization to provide humanitarian assistance through the organization’s mission.
At the end, the conference decided the following: The Islamic countries have pledged to set up a humanitarian trust fund to be set up under the aegis of the Islamic Development Bank, and food programme in Afghanistan to assist the millions facing the hunger and a harsh winter. The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia also announced the provision of one billion Saudi Riyals as humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
The OIC Secretary General appointed Ambassador Tariq Ali Bakheet as his Special Envoy on Afghanistan. The delegates also said they would work through the UN, “to unlock the financial and banking channels to resume liquidity and flow of financial and humanitarian assistance”. An OIC resolution released after the meeting said the Islamic Development Bank would lead the effort to free up assistance by the first quarter of next year. It also urged Afghanistan’s rulers to abide by “obligations under international human rights covenants, especially with regard to the rights of women, children, youth, elderly and people with special needs”.
The above discussion indicates that the conference has been a great success in finding ways to address the upcoming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and on its successful conclusion Pakistan can rightly feel satisfied as it was able to draw the direly required world attention, especially of the OIC member countries, towards the Afghan people’s economic plight.
Surely, as pledged during the conference, the Islamic countries are likely to provide the required economic assistance to the Afghan people and the impending humanitarian crisis will be averted, which otherwise would have also adversely impacted Pakistan.
Where as the hosting of the conference has raised Pakistan’s image on the world stage, on the sidelines of the conference, Pakistan also got a chance to discuss the issue of Jammu and Kashmir with the OIC Secretary General and consolidate OIC’s support on the dispute.
—The writer is the former Research Fellow of IPRI and Senior Research Fellow of SVI Islamabad.
