Pakistan offers to host OIC summit proposed by Saudi Arabia to discuss Afghan humanitarian crisis

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi welcomed on Monday Saudi Arabia’s move to request an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and announced that Pakistan had offered to host the meeting in Islamabad on December 17. According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO), Qureshi said Pakistan “fully endorses” the initiative taken by Saudi Arabia and expressed confidence that other OIC members would also back the proposal. Saudi Arabia, which is the chair of the OIC summit, made the call for the extraordinary session the same day, according to state-run Saudi Press Agency. The agency reported that the meeting had been called to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and “pathways for an urgent humanitarian response”, acknowledging Pakistan’s offer to host the summit. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, the country — already struggling with drought and severe poverty after decades of war — has seen its economy all but collapse, raising the spectre of an exodus of refugees. According to the FO’s statement, Qureshi, too, highlighted the need for providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan in these difficult times. “Afghanistan is a founding member of the OIC. As part of the Islamic Ummah, we are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood with the people of Afghanistan,” he said, stressing that “today, our Afghan brothers and sisters need us more than ever before.”Describing the situation in the warn-torn country, he said Afghanistan currently “faces a serious humanitarian situation — millions of Afghans, including women and children, confront an uncertain future due to [the] shortage of food, medicines, and other essential life supplies”. And the advent of winter had exacerbated this humanitarian crisis, the foreign minister added.He emphasised the need for the OIC to “step in to help our Afghan brethren”. Source: dawn.com