Staff Reporter Lahore
SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sunday called for urgent action to protect millions of Afghans from starvation and warned that over 22.8 millions Afghans, who constitute nearly half of the total population, are facing food insecurity while 3.2 million children under the age of five year can suffer from acute malnutrition.
This was stated by SAARC Chamber Chief Iftikhar Ali Malik while talking to a high level delegation of “Think Tank” led by Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood, Dean faculty of information and media studies Punjab University.
He said the international community especially West and US must realise that this indifference may result in chaos, leading to internal strike and civil war, the consequences of which would be disastrous for the whole world beyond Afghanistan.
He said it’s race against time and countries must step in to shoulder their responsibility and to address Afghanistan’s latest disaster.
He said this is a country where only 5 percent of the people have access to enough food to survive and Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as this country is on a countdown to catastrophe.
Iftikhar Ali Malik who is also founder chairman Pak-US Business Council and Chairman United Business Council said most disconcerting are reports that impoverished parents are selling off their babies to buy food and such is the level of desperation in the impoverished country.
He lamented hunger forcing Afghans to sell young daughters into marriage. Dr Khalid Mahmood said at a donors’ conference in September last, the world community pledged $1 billion in humanitarian assistance, a third of which was to go the WFP but the sum of money pledged to provide food to hungry.
