PESHAWAR: Addressing the 17th extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers on the situation in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that there will be the biggest “man-made crisis” in Afghanistan if the world failed to take effective measures.
The extraordinary session of the OIC began with the recitation of the Holy Quran in Islamabad on Sunday. The Prime Minister said that it is a matter of great pleasure that all the Islamic countries are participating in the Summit on Pakistan’s request and are well aware of the crisis in Afghanistan. He said that Afghanistan has been looted by corrupt governments for years, most of its population passing lives below the poverty line and the banking system is stagnant.
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He further said that Pakistan had suffered the most because of the Afghan war and had sacrificed more than 80,000 lives in the war on terror. He said Pakistan has borne the burden of three million Afghan refugees and millions of Afghan refugees were still living in Pakistan. He said that during the Ashraf Ghani government, 75% of Afghanistan’s budget has been on foreign aid but now foreign aid to Afghanistan has stopped.
“We must remember that instability in Afghanistan will strengthen terrorists. Instability in Afghanistan will force Afghans to flee neighbouring countries. Imran Khan said that helping Afghanistan is also “our religious responsibility”. He said that Islamophobia is also one of the major problem faced by Islamic world. “OIC should play its role to eradicate Islamophobia, some elements in our society also use religion to spread hatred. “No religion allows terrorism. But unfortunately a lot of propaganda was spread about Islam after 9/11,” Imran Khan said.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi in his address said that the OIC meeting aimed to discuss problem faced by the people of Afghanistan. Qureshi said that according to world food program, half of the population of Afghanistan is facing food shortage in Afghanistan.