‘We should help Afghanistan’
FORMER Pakistani Foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani on Monday called on the international community to immediately help cash-strapped Afghanistan to avert a humanitarian crisis in that country.”The financial assistance, which is badly needed for the Taliban is not forthcoming,” Jilani said during The Manila Times roundtable interview also attended by Pakistani Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad Kazi.He noted that the International Monetary Fund was supposed to release $460 million to Afghanistan but the amount “has not been released.””Afghanistan has funds in the United States of America, [which is] close to $10 billion is also frozen,” Jilani said.Also frozen were the pledges made by some donor countries in 2020. These countries vowed “that they will give $12 million in a span of four years to the Taliban government,” he added.”So, you know money is not coming in. So, the situation is moving toward a humanitarian crisis,” Jilani warned.He said the international community was apprehensive whether the Taliban “will be able to sever their links with terrorist organizations.”The Taliban, he said, had announced they wanted to seek international legitimacy and recognition. “They would like to engage in social welfare activities.””They also indicated they would form an inclusive government, which is being demanded by the international community,” the former ambassador to the US said.Jilani pointed out that it had only been less than a month since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.”I think we need to give them some time. In our view, it would be unrealistic to expect the Taliban to be completely transformed overnight,” he stressed. “Our own perception is we help them. It would create a lot of leverage vis-à-vis Taliban. We should help them now.”Kazi said the consul general of Pakistan to Jalalabad reported that the Pakistan-Afghanistan Cooperation Forum yesterday sent “humanitarian supplies to different Afghan provinces.”Kazi, who arrived in Manila in November 2020 and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confirmed the solidarity between Manila and Pakistan and voiced hope for greater cooperation in the areas of defense, trade and investment and nontraditional security concerns and mutual assistance in the repatriation of their respective nationals.In July 2020, around 50 Pakistanis stranded in the Philippines were accommodated on a flight chartered by the Philippine government to bring home Filipinos from Pakistan.Meanwhile, an estimated 194 Filipinos have been repatriated from Pakistan since the start of the pandemic.
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