State Minister for Foreign Affairs arrives in Pakistan for OIC meeting on Afghan situation

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Khaleel has arrived in Pakistan to participate 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

State Minister Ahmed Khaleel and the high-level delegation from the Maldivian government who is accompanying him on the trip, was welcomed to the country by the High Commissioner of Maldives to Pakistan Farzana Zahir.

Subsequent to their arrival, State Minister Khaleel and the Maldives delegation took part in the preparatory meeting for the Extraordinary Session.

The focus of the meeting will be on the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan. 

Saudi Arabia, the OIC Summit Chair, called for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan back in November. 

Pakistan welcomed the initiative and offered to host the meeting in Islamabad. 

Pakistan hopes that discussions with the OIC and other international partners will lead to concrete outcomes for intensive engagements with Afghanistan and its people. 

Afghanistan is facing a looming economic meltdown and humanitarian catastrophe in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover. Billions of dollars’ worth of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the U.S., have been frozen and international funding to the country has ceased.

Millions of Afghans including women and children, urgently need medicine and other essential living supplies.

 According to the UN World Food Program, around 22.8 million people – which is more than half the population of Afghanistan - face food shortage, while 3.2 million children and 700,000 pregnant and lactating women are at risk of acute malnutrition.