UNITED NATIONS: Secretary of state Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrives in ny on Monday (today) for the 76 sessions of the UN General Assembly during which Pakistan will join the United Nations in urging the planet to stop an economic collapse in Afghanistan.
“The situation in Afghanistan is unpredictable,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres in an interview to UN News.
“Because of all the various measures and sanctions that exist, there’s a risk of completely strangling the economy,” he warned.
“We need to stabilise Afghanistan,” said Pakistan’s UN envoy Munir Akram while lecture Dawn. Pakistan would avail this chance to involve “preventing an economic collapse” in Afghanistan, he said.
“Those who want to play politics, can play politics. But everyone knows the results of an economic collapse.”
The collapse could cause “a humanitarian crisis, an influx of refugees, revive conflicts and drug traffic and enhance terrorism,” he said. “All those things must be avoided.”
The UN chief too underlined the results of mishandling the Afghan issue at this moment. “What happened in Afghanistan might embolden terrorist groups or other rebel movements to become more aggressive,” he said.
Mr Guterres further expanded the topic , highlighting the points he thinks must be addressed to stabilise Afghanistan.
“We all want Afghanistan to possess an inclusive government… respect human rights especially of girls and girls (and) nevermore be a centre for terrorists,” he said. “We all want Afghanistan to fight drug traffic .”
The United Nations , he said, had a requirement to interact Afghanistan, “based on what we will deliver, and what we will deliver is important humanitarian aid”.
The United Nations , however, should also “engage so as to elucidate to the Taliban how important it’s for them to possess an inclusive government of all the various ethnicities, and, of course, with women,” he said.
Ambassador Akram said that Pakistan’s priorities within the 76th UNGA would be to market its own economic and social development in these challenging times.
Pakistan, he said, would highlight its concerns about the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and therefore the major human rights violations India was committing there.
“We want the planet to understand the threat to peace and security arising from this example ,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will address the UNGA from Islamabad on Sept 24. The secretary of state will convene a gathering of the OIC contact group on Jammu and Kashmir to debate things there. He also will participate within the meeting on the UN Security Council reforms and in other meetings on climate crisis and energy issues.
The prime minister will participate, virtually, during a conference of 30 world leaders also . The UN chief has called the meeting to debate the climate conference in Glasgow later this year.
The secretary of state also will turn the UNGA president, the Secretary General and EU and other world leaders.
But Ambassador Akram acknowledged that Afghanistan would be the key issue before this UNGA. “Our strategy is to ascertain the way to stabilise Afghanistan, restore peace, promote reconciliation, bring humanitarian help and revive the Afghan economy,” he said.
“We also will address the difficulty of terrorism, particularly TTP’s activities.”
The 76th UNGA, he said, wouldn’t specialise in whether to recognise the Taliban government in Kabul. “That issue may come up later as they need not yet formed a permanent government,” he said. “They aren’t seeking representation yet.
They may do so after a permanent government is made .”
Asked if the international community was willing to assist Afghanistan, Ambassador Akram noted that at a UN conference last week, the Secretary General asked for $600 million but $1.2 billion were pledged. “That shows the extent of interest.”
To avoid a person’s crisis, he said, Pakistan was also posing for unfreezing of Afghanistan’s reserves as “without cash the economy will collapse”.
