Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain

OIC moot an unqualified success

Pakistan hosted an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad on December 19 to deliberate on the situation in Afghanistan, which faces a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions due to the advent of harsh winter.

Attended by 70 delegates, including foreign ministers of 20 countries, representatives of P-5 countries, officials of the UN, global financial institutions, international and regional organizations and important non-OIC countries like Japan and Germany, the OIC moot was a resounding success given the fact that it was called on a very short notice. The last such session was held in 1980 following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

It is a measure of the success of Islamabad’s untiring diplomatic efforts that OIC came to Islamabad to deal with a preventable humanitarian disaster. Let us be clear about what Islamabad’s goal was: the objective was to bring into sharp focus the looming humanitarian crisis faced by 34 million people of Afghanistan due to the combined impact of US economic sanctions on Afghanistan and American unwillingness to release Afghan funds to the tune of over US 10 billion dollars.

The international community has been insisting on theformation of an inclusive government, protection of human rights and abandoning of Taliban’s links with various terrorists outfits operating within Afghanistan.

The Taliban regime has been reluctant to meet these conditions with the result that it has empty coffers and does not have money to pay salaries for thousands of schoolteachers, health workers and government workers.

Islamabad wanted the 57-member OIC organisation along with other stakeholders to take the lead in devising ways and means to deal with the looming humanitarian crisis.

Finding the money to help the Afghan people was not the central issue. The real issue was how to convince the international community to get its act together in providing medical aid, food supplies, and shelter to millions of destitute Afghan families in their darkest hour.

The US had spent over 2 trillion dollars, to win the unwinnable war in Afghanistan, and after its strategic failure in Afghanistan, Washington has decided to impound Afghan financial assets lying with the US treasury.

Over forty years of relentless war has ravaged the Afghan economy and decimated every sinew of its social and political structure with the result that ordinary Afghans are feeling betrayed and abandoned.

Before August 15, 2021, when the Afghan state structures collapsed and corrupt elements of the Ashraf Ghani government made it out of Kabul with bags full of US dollars that had sustained the Afghan economy and its armed forces, paving the way for thepeaceful take over of power by the Taliban forces, the Western countries led by the United States had mistakenly expected that they would not be facing such a meltdown of the Afghan state.

The American animus against the Taliban’s stunning return to power in August 2021 not only reflects Washington’s inability to engage in self-critical analysis, but also at a deeper level reflects its failure to realize the limits of its much-vaunted military power. There is an entrenched belief in Washington that military power is the ultimate solution to all problems – big or small. Washington is all too willing to punish those states or groups who refuse to submit themselves to its ‘imperial’ will.

Yet, there are voices being raised in Washington against this mindset. The most recent example is the letter written by leading American Congressmen to Antony Blinken calling upon the Secretary of State to rethink his Administration’s “sanction” based approach toward Afghanistan. In their letter, the Congressmen have stated that “growing economic and food crisis has prompted fears of mass migration that may further destabilize the region”.

In view of this, the Congressmen recommend that the Biden administration release frozen Afghan assets to an appropriate UN agency to pay teachers’ salaries and provide meals to children in schools. The letter calls upon the Biden administration to allow international financial institutions to inject the necessary economic capital into Afghanistan to stave off the worst of its economic meltdown. And, finally the letter correctly observes, “No one benefits from a failed state in Afghanistan.”

To avoid the impending collapse of the Afghan state, its economy and to avert the looming humanitarian disaster, the OIC moot has taken some very useful policy decisions. These steps, if implemented with a sense of urgency the Afghan situation requires, could avert what Prime Minister Imran Khan has described “as the biggest man made disaster.”

According to the joint statement issued at the end of the OIC moot, the following steps have been agreed: to establish a humanitarian trust fund to help Afghan people; to launch a food security programme for the people of Afghanistan; appointment of OIC special envoy for Afghanistan to coordinate aid/assistance effort and pursue economic and political engagement with Afghanistan.

In addition, a special group of OIC experts has been constituted to offer advice on how best to provide aid and assistance to the Afghan people.

During the joint press conference addressed by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha, it was revealed that US representative Tom West had expressed an interest in showing flexibility towards the Taliban regime vis-à-vis the American sanctions placed on them.

The IFI representatives along with EU representative also expressed a keen interest in joining the OIC Trust Fund efforts to offer humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi emphasized that helping people of Afghanistan was a “shared responsibility and despite the desire, Pakistan alone cannot meet their humanitarian needs.” The Foreign Minister went on to say that there would be further follow up meetings to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people. He further revealed that the Afghan delegation led by their Foreign Minister apprised the OIC meeting about the situation in Afghanistan and OIC foreign ministers expressed unity and support for the people of Afghanistan in the meeting.

Overall, the OIC moot was an unqualified success due to the excellent work done by the Pakistan Foreign Office and the OIC Secretariat, particularly the generous support it received from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now the challenge is to put on fast track the policy template devised by the OIC to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.

The writer is a political scientist and defense analyst.