'OIC can be an effective platform to cope with Afghan situation'

World now understands that abandoning Afghanistan is not in anybody's interest, says FM Qureshi

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), being a collective voice of Muslim Ummah, can prove to be an effective platform to cope with Afghanistan's situation.

The FM's resolve came whilst he was chairing a meeting in Islamabad wherein he said that the upcoming OIC moot will be aimed at drawing the world’s attention towards the need to extend assistance to the Afghan people faced with a dire humanitarian situation.

"The world now understands that abandoning Afghanistan is not in anybody's interest," he said, adding that the world appears willing to extend assistance to the war-torn country on humanitarian grounds.

Qureshi further stated that Pakistan has also invited Afghans to the upcoming meeting so that they could present their point of view.

A day earlier, the foreign minister said Pakistan was fulfilling its responsibility to timely warn the world that its inaction on Afghanistan would lead to a big humanitarian crisis, warning the international community that any chaos in the war-torn country will strengthen terrorist outfits.

In a statement ahead of a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Council of Foreign Ministers (OIC-CFM) in Islamabad this Sunday, Qureshi further warned that if the situation deteriorated in Afghanistan, it will not only affect Pakistan, but also the other countries of the region and beyond.

“Pakistan wants the world to realise that a humanitarian crisis and economic collapse of Afghanistan is inevitable if the world continued to show apathy towards the grave situation,” he said. He added urgent steps by the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank were the need of the hour.

Islamabad will host the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC-CFM on December 19. The meeting, convened by Saudi Arabia, will galvanise the international actors to come forward and extend a helping hand to the Afghan people.