Pakistan on Wednesday urged Muslim countries to mobilize humanitarian aid and press Kabul to take verifiable steps against terrorism as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Afghanistan held its inaugural session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Contact Group was established in December 2021 at an extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, convened after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan, which shares a 2,600-km border with Afghanistan and has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades, has consistently pressed the international community not to isolate Kabul. At the same time, relations between the two neighbors have been strained by a recent surge in militant attacks inside Pakistan, which authorities say are launched from Afghan territory. Kabul denies this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe OIC Group must advocate for adequate funding by the international donors to meet Afghanistan\u2019s humanitarian aid requirements without any political considerations,\u201d Pakistani foreign minister and deputy prime minister Ishaq Dar said in his speech, according to an official transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister said OIC states should help stabilize Afghanistan\u2019s economy and revive its banking system to create conditions for trade and regional connectivity. He also commended UN-led initiatives to support former poppy farmers with alternative livelihoods, urging the OIC to back these efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turning to security, Dar voiced \u201cserious concern\u201d over the presence of more than two dozen militant groups inside Afghanistan, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army, Majeed Brigade and East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which he said were collaborating with Al-Qaeda. Kabul says Pakistan\u2019s security issues are an internal challenge and denies harboring militant groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur law enforcement officials and civilians continue to make enormous sacrifices to terrorism emanating from Afghanistan,\u201d he said. \u201cEarlier this month, 12 Pakistani soldiers were martyred in our bordering regions while combating TTP terrorist infiltrators from Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dar called on the Afghan interim authorities to take \u201cconcrete and verifiable action\u201d to prevent their soil from being used for terrorism against neighboring countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He proposed the establishment of an OIC working group of experts to draw up a practical roadmap for progress \u201cacross the entire spectrum of issues faced by our brotherly country Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pakistani deputy premier urged the Taliban to lift their curbs on women and girls\u2019 education and employment, calling them \u201cunjustified and contrary to Islamic principles and norms of Muslim society.\u201d He said the OIC should work to persuade the Taliban to reconsider such policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On refugees, Dar said peace returning to Afghanistan should pave the way for millions of displaced Afghans to return home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe OIC Group must urge the Afghan interim authorities to create conditions necessary for facilitating the resettlement of Afghan returnees \u2026 and to ensure their integration into the political and social fabric of Afghanistan for lasting peace and stability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan on Wednesday urged Muslim countries to mobilize humanitarian aid and press Kabul to take verifiable steps against terrorism as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Afghanistan held its inaugural session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The Contact Group was established in December 2021 at an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news","9":"category-pakistan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}