Islamic world should come forward to assist Afghan Taliban: Sirajul Haq

ISLAMABAD: Jamat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq on Thursday appealed to the Islamic world to come forward to help the Afghan Taliban in nation-building.

The JI chief, in a meeting at Al-Khidmat Foundation head office with Hilal-e-Ahmar Afghanistan chief Maulvi Matiul Haq Khalis, said that a looming food crisis in the neighbouring country was on the cards. If urgent humanitarian intervention is not done then there are chances of intensified food insecurity given the harsh winter weather, he added.

The senator demanded the Islamic world, particularly the Pakistani government, to recognise the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

UN agencies have reportedly said that over 22 million Afghans will suffer “acute food insecurity” this winter, warning the already unstable country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Read more: More than half of Afghans face ‘acute’ food crisis: UN agencies

“This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance,” said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.

The crisis is already bigger in scale than that facing Yemen or Syria, and worse than any food insecurity emergency apart from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises – if not the worst – and food security has all but collapsed,” Beasley said in a statement.

“We are on a countdown to catastrophe and if we don’t act now, we will have a total disaster on our hands.”