Pakistan: Please Don’t Leave Afghanistan

ACCEPTANCE – Pakistan will rally Muslim countries in the world to help Afghanistan to prevent economic and humanitarian disasters from occurring in the country. Pakistan will also seek to persuade the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers, to soften their image abroad.

Over the coming weekend, several Foreign Ministers from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation will meet in Islamabad. This meeting is to explore ways to help Afghanistan, amidst the difficulty of predicting the political realities of the Taliban.

Read: Taliban Shoot Dead Afghan Little Girl Preparing to Flee to Canada

“The OIC meeting is a meeting that does not constitute an official acknowledgment of the Taliban regime,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, as quoted by AP, Saturday (12/18/2021).

He said the message for Sunday’s meeting was that Islamic countries should not leave Afghanistan. “Please don’t leave Afghanistan. Please get involved. We speak for the Afghan people. We’re not talking about a specific group. We are talking about the Afghan people,” he continued.

Qureshi said major powers – including the United States (US), Russia, China and the European Union – would send their special representatives in Afghanistan to the one-day summit. Taliban-appointed Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also attend the conference.

Afghanistan is facing a looming economic crisis and humanitarian catastrophe following the takeover of the Taliban. The nation’s billions of dollars’ worth of assets overseas, mostly in the US, have been frozen and international funding to the country has been halted.

Read: Pakistani Taliban Supreme Commander Escapes Drone Attack

The world is also still waiting for developments, before extending any formal recognition to the new rulers of Kabul. The world is wary that the Taliban could impose a regime that is just as harsh as it was when they came to power 20 years ago – even though they vouched for otherwise.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Muttaqi said that Afghanistan’s new ruler is committed to the education of girls and women in the workforce.

But four months after Taliban rule, girls are not allowed to attend secondary schools in most provinces. And, although women have returned to their jobs in most of the health care sector, many female civil servants are barred from work.

(esn)

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