Support for Afghanistan reiterated
PAKISTAN has yet again reiterated its all out support to Afghanistan to avert the humanitarian crisis which is looming large on the sky as winter is fast setting in and Afghan people are looking around and waiting for much needed assistance pouring in from all over the world.
Pakistan has all along been supporting the people of Afghanistan’s urgent requirements for assistance and calling for release of frozen funds of Afghanistan by the international com-munity ever since the US-led NATO forces left war-torn country Afghanistan and Taliban assumed power a couple of months back.
All out support for the people of Afghanistan was reiterated yet again by no less a person than Prime Minister Imran Khan while presiding over the meeting of the Apex Committee on Afghanistan.
This reiteration of support to the Afghan people has come on the eve of 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers which is being held in Islamabad on December 19, 2021.
Pakistan is hosting the important moot of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers after 41 years initiative for which was taken by the OIC Summit Chair, Saudi Arabia, on 29 November 2021, to convene the meeting to consider the situation in Afghanistan.
Pakistan had not only strongly welcomed the initiative but also offered to host the moot in Islamabad which was accepted by Saudi Arabia forthwith.
OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha welcomed the move and said in a statement the other day that we look forward to the upcoming meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad for producing a positive outcome that will end the humanitarian plight of the Afghan people.
Afghanistan is the founding-member of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which has 57 members and five states as observers.
As part of the Islamic Ummah, the OIC member-countries are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood with the people of Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been, time and again, emphatically telling the international community at large that if Afghanistan is not supported, a new war could start there, and warned that to abandon Afghanistan at this critical stage would be a historical mistake while instability in Afghanistan could give way to renewed conflict and also trigger exodus of refugees.
Backdrop of this important moot is the serious humanitarian situation in Afghanistan which is looming large with winter fast setting in and much of the assistance forthcoming in the form of food items, medicines, blankets etc.
Pakistan, on its part, has been dispatching con-signments of food items, medicines, blankets etc frequently, has also allowed even India to send food grains to Afghanistan through its territory.
China has also announced that it will continue helping the people of Afghanistan. But still not much help was forthcoming from the international community and frozen funds of Afghanistan were also not being defreezed.
According to the estimates of the United Nations (UN) , as large number as 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s 38 million people are threatened with crisis levels of hunger and the situation is getting worse with every passing day.
World Food Programme has also warned that 3.2 million children in Afghanistan are at the grave risk of acute malnutrition
And, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that a large number of 665000 people have become newly displaced persons within Afghanistan between Jan-uary to September 2021.
These people are in addition to 2.9 million people who are already internally displaced In that country.
Needless to emphasize here that the advent of winter has further exacerbated the situation and timely much-needed help is not forthcoming and the people of Afghanistan are left un-attended in this very critical and difficult time, then the situation could aggravate into a major humanitarian crisis about which Pakistan has been warning the international community.
Over the years, the OIC has been extending consistent support to the people of Afghanistan. But today , more than ever before, the people of Afghanistan need support from the international community including the OIC.
As stated above, Pakistan on its part had consistently been engaged in intense diplomatic outreach, illustrated by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s contacts with world leaders, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s numerous bilateral interactions and visit to four neighbouring countries of Afghanistan namely Iran, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, establishment of the six neighbouring countries platform at the initiative of Pakistan, participation in the Moscow format meetings hosting of Troika Plus meeting in Islamabad and other visits and engagements evolving around Afghanistan.
By and large, the international community is concerned over the situation in Afghanistan. International partners of Afghanistan also want to help.
Needless to mention here that OIC , being the world’s second largest organization after the United Nations, is the collective of the Islamic Ummah can and must play its much expected role in addressing the humanitarian needs of our Afghan brethren, sisters and children.
Any positive move on the part of the OIC’s leadership would hopefully also be helpful in galvanizing other international actors to come forward and extend a much-wanted and needed helping hand to the people of Afghanistan.
Continued engagement of the international community with Afghanistan is, therefore, an imperative to say the least.
Against this backdrop, the upcoming Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad on December 19 would hopefully be providing an opportunity to consider practical engagements and come up with concrete steps to help and address the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan.
It is not only expected but also very much hoped that besides expressing solidarity, the OIC member states through their Foreign Ministers and rest of the international community in-cluding the European Union and five permanent members of the UN Security Council at-tending the important moot will also be considering and making pledges of the financial and in-kind support and assistance which the people of Afghanistan are very keenly looking for.
If hopefully a humanitarian crisis , which looming large over Afghanistan, is averted as well as economic stability assured then peace in the country can be consolidated and quite ob-viously this will also have a regional peace dividend. Peace in Afghani will mean peace and security in Pakistan indeed.
—The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad.
