Pakistan Wednesday focused the world community’s attention to the dire humanitarian and economic crisis facing Afghanistan, and fervently called for lifting the “unjustified freeze” on the war-torn country’s assets to enable it deal with the critical situation.
“Cash is needed to revive the economy – to pay salaries, restore small businesses, revive the banking system,” Ambassador Munir Akram told UN Security Council, while highlighting that 28 million Afghans were facing acute food insecurity.
Speaking in the 15-member Council’s meeting on Afghanistan, the Pakistani envoy warned that the consequences of a major humanitarian crisis and economic collapse there would be horrendous — massive human suffering, the outflow of millions of more Afghan refugees, the likelihood of chaos and further conflict and reinforcement of Da’esh and other terrorist groups.—Agencies