ISLAMABAD:The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday set up a humanitarian fund to be operated by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to help avert the humanitarian and economic crises in Afghanistan, as Prime Minister Imran khan warned that the neighbouring country could potentially become the “biggest man-made crisis” if the world did not act.

The announcement of the fund was part of the measures the 57-member Islamic bloc agreed upon after the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hosted by Pakistan. However, it is unclear if the decisions made by the OIC will make an immediate impact on the ground in Afghanistan, which is in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
The humanitarian fund would channel financial assistance to be provided by member states to Afghanistan.

The reason the trust fund has been set up is to establish a channel through which assistance could be provided to the people of Afghanistan. Currently, because of the sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries, there are no formal banking channels or financial system operating in Afghanistan.
In the absence of formal banking channels, the countries interested in helping the people of Afghanistan are finding it difficult to do so.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who held a joint news conference along with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha, said the establishment of a trust fund would help address that problem.
However, no pledges or donations were made yet to the newly created fund as Qureshi said the fund was just announced and hopefully member countries would start contributing to it soon.

He also admitted that another reason the fund was set up was because some of the member countries were not willing to channel assistance through the Taliban government. The OIC secretary general appointed a special envoy on Afghanistan, who would make sure the decisions made at the Islamabad conference were fully implemented. Over 20 foreign ministers including those from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Jordon, Kuwait and Bangladesh attended the day-long meeting at the Parliament House. The foreign delegates were seated in the National Assembly hall, which otherwise is reserved for elected representatives.

The permanent members of the UN Security Council, European Union and international financial institutions also came to the meeting, making it the biggest international gathering on Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in the war-torn country. The Afghan acting foreign minister was also in attendance but was not given the podium during the open session. However, he did speak during the closed door session of the OIC meeting.

The OIC member countries, which were gathered to assess the current humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, were confronted with a grim scenario by a senior UN official. UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths, who delivered the address on behalf of the global body’s secretary general, gave a startling presentation about the nightmare scenario in Afghanistan. “[Around] 23 million people are already facing hunger. Health facilities are overflowing with malnourished children. Some 70 percent of teachers are not getting paid and millions of children, Afghanistan future, are out of school,” Martin said.

He maintained that the Afghan economy was on free fall -- something that would take down the entire population. The UN representative also warned that as per the UN Development Programme, 97% of the Afghan population could slip below the poverty line by June next year if urgent steps were not taken to mitigate their sufferings. In his keynote address, PM Imran asked the US to delink the Taliban government from the 40 million Afghan citizens.

“The United States specifically must delink the Taliban government from the 40 million Afghan citizens. Even if they have been in conflict with the Taliban for 20 years but this is the question of the people of Afghanistan" he said. The US has frozen $9.5 billion assets of the Afghan central bank since the Taliban takeover in August. During the closed door session, according to Foreign Minister Qureshi, Thomas West, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, hinted at a possible shift in the US approach.
Qureshi maintained that West had said the US did not want to attach any conditions to the humanitarian aid.

PM Imran, in his address, warned that Afghanistan could potentially become the “biggest man made crisis” if the world did not act. He said the healthcare and education sectors in Afghanistan were in shambles, and urged the world to take immediate action as the neighbouring country was heading fast towards a humanitarian crisis. “Unless action is taken immediately, Afghanistan is heading for chaos. Any government when it cannot pay salaries to public servants, doctors and nurses is going to collapse.

But chaos suits no one. It certainly does not suit the United States,” the prime minister added.
PM Imran noted that if the Afghan government remained unable to counter terrorism because of a dearth of resources, other countries may also face a spillover impact. Mentioning the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and terror attacks inside Pakistan from that country, the prime minister said the only way to handle the terrorist outfits was a stable regime in Kabul.

He added that the IS was capable of carrying out international attacks. The prime minister said Pakistan also had the same concern, having faced the biggest collateral damage of the Afghan war with a loss of 80,000 people and shattered economy, and displacement of 3.5 million people internally. The premier welcomed the delegates in Pakistan, saying it was ironic that Islamabad had hosted an OIC moot on Afghanistan 41 years ago as well.