ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday asserted that frozen financial assets belonged to the people of Afghanistan and they should decide how the funds would be utilized.
The reaction from the foreign minister 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.
In a statement issued today, the foreign minister said Pakistan was saying from day one that the funds for Afghanistan should be unfrozen. He said the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating and a crisis had emerged in the country. “It is our collective responsibility to tackle this crisis,” he added.
During the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad on December 19, a resolution was adopted which called for release of frozen funds for assistance to Afghanistan, he recalled.
The people of Afghanistan had reservations on the US decision and they were saying that it was their money and it should be their discretion as to how they would use that money, he noted. He said the people of Afghanistan were demanding that they needed humanitarian assistance and their resources should be given to them.
The minister said the world was saying that if Afghanistan was not given timely humanitarian assistance, then most of the population in 2022 would go below the poverty line because of the present crisis.
“Our opinion is that the frozen assets are owned by people of Afghanistan and it is imperative that this money should reach the people of Afghanistan even if its distribution is done through the organizations of the United Nations,” he added.
Qureshi said due to scarcity of food in Afghanistan people particularly women and children would be affected. “We want that girl schools and hospitals are functional in Afghanistan.” He said money was needed to pay salaries of school teachers in Afghanistan.
Economic collapse in Afghanistan was not in the interest of anybody and any economic collapse would result in huge influx of Afghan refugees, he observed. He said law and order situation in Afghanistan had improved and at present, issue of people in the country was the dire economic situation.
