Pakistan questions US move of giving half of $7b Afghan funds to 9/11 victims

Pakistan has questioned the US decision of setting aside half of the Afghan assets held in America for the victims of the 9/11 attacks, saying utilisation of Afghan funds should be the “sovereign decision of Afghanistan.”

The reaction from the foreign office on Saturday came after President Joe Biden in what is seen as a controversial move decided to split $7 billion foreign assets of Afghanistan between the victims of the 9/11 attacks and for the humanitarian assistance of Afghanistan.

The decision was even being criticised within the US with many people including victims’ families of the 9/11 attacks insisting that Afghan funds should not have been arbitrarily used by the US government.

Read more: US moves to unfreeze Afghan assets

“Pakistan has seen the US decision to unfreeze the Afghan assets held by the US banks to release $3.5 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and $3.5 billion for compensation to families of 9/11 victims,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a carefully worded statement.

The official press release noted that over the past several months, Pakistan had been consistently emphasising the need for the international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked.

“Finding ways to unfreeze the Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people,” the statement read.

It went on to state that Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that “these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released.”

“The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson said.

The statement also drew attention towards the Afghan people, who are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. “Time is of the essence,” the statement concluded.

The Afghan Taliban were also quick to denounce the US decision.

Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, said in a tweet, “Stealing the Afghan people’s money that was frozen by the United States is the lowest a country could stoop to morally and humanly. Defeat and victory are part of human history but the greatest and scandalous defeat for a country or its people is when they suffer militarily and morally as well.”

Also read: Pakistan sends more aid as humanitarian crisis unfolds in Afghanistan

Separately, Pakistan’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram noted, "This money is critically needed to revive and sustain the Afghan economy, inject much-needed liquidity, and to save millions of lives in the middle of a harsh winter.”

“There is something wrong with a financial system where one State can unilaterally block the National assets of another to pay off questionable claims by its own citizens,” Akram added.

The $7 billion in funds from Da Afghanistan Bank, the country’s central bank, that were on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, have been frozen since then-President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed after the Taliban takeover at the end of August 2021.

The country has experienced economic collapse and food insecurity since then.