By PTI
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will soon communicate its decision to India on allowing a humanitarian shipment of wheat to pass through its territory to neighbouring Afghanistan as concerned authorities finalise modalities, according to a media report on Thursday.
“The decision will be announced soon,” a senior government official was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune newspaper.
The official also dismissed the perception that Pakistan might not allow the transportation of wheat to Afghanistan via the Wagah border crossing.
Last month, India announced 50,000 metric tons of wheat for Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance and requested Pakistan to ship the food grain via the Wagah border.
Currently, Pakistan only allows Afghanistan to export goods to India but doesn’t allow any other two-way trade through the border crossing.
Prime Minister Imran Khan told Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi last week that his government would “favorably consider” the request by Afghan brothers for transportation of wheat offered by India through Pakistan for humanitarian purposes after working out its modalities.
The Afghan foreign minister had requested Prime Minister Khan to allow India to transport wheat via Pakistan, suggesting that the Taliban government was willing to accept the humanitarian assistance from India.
“We have almost finalised the modalities and soon India would be communicated about our decision,” the official said.
The Taliban government has said it wanted to maintain good ties with all countries including India.
Earlier, it was reported that Indian officials during a meeting with US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West sought “unhindered access” to Afghanistan for the shipment of 50,000 tons of wheat being sent as humanitarian assistance.
Official sources here said the access would be unhindered once the modalities were worked out.
A source said that when the Prime Minister publicly stated that Pakistan would “favorably consider” the request that meant in principle the government had already decided to allow India to transport wheat via Pakistan.
If both sides eventually agree on the modalities and India does transport the wheat via Pakistan, this would be seen as a significant development given the current state of the relationship between the two countries and how both differ on Afghanistan, according to the paper.
The recent regional security conference on Afghanistan hosted by India shows how strongly regional countries are stepping up at this critical time to underline the need for stability in the war-torn nation as well as the urgent requirement to combat transnational terrorism, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan has said.
Last week, India hosted the Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan that was attended by security czars of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
At the regional dialogue, National Security Advisors (NSAs) of the countries called for providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in an unimpeded, direct and assured manner.
Pakistan has not allowed transit facilities to send aid to Afghanistan.
“Regional countries have created or continued various important formats of support. Both the Moscow format meetings and the so-called “Troika plus”, involving China, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States, have continued to meet,” Deborah Lyons, who is also head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Wednesday.
“India also recently hosted a conference of some regional countries at the National Security Advisor level. All indications of how strongly the regional countries are stepping up at this critical time,” she said in her briefing to the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan.
She also said there is an urgent need to combat illegal drug trafficking and transnational terrorism.
“All of these formats rightly stress the need for stability in Afghanistan as well as the urgent requirement to combat illegal drug-trafficking and transnational terrorism.”
“Regional countries, like the rest of the international community, have called for a more inclusive government in Afghanistan as well as the need for girls’ education, women returning to work, respect for human rights and the rights of minorities. On these issues there is a strong regional and international consensus. The world is speaking with one voice to the Taliban on these issues,” she said.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti noted that the “Delhi Declaration on Afghanistan” adopted at the Regional Security Dialogue of National Security Advisors reflects the much-needed regional consensus on Afghanistan.
“The international community and key stakeholders including from Afghanistan have welcomed the Delhi Declaration on Afghanistan,” he said.
The declaration released at the end of the dialogue had said the NSAs pitched for providing assistance to the Afghan people in an unimpeded, direct and assured manner and that aid should be distributed in a “non-discriminatory” manner across all sections of the society.
Lyons said that while the overall security situation has indeed improved, as the conflict has largely ended “we regularly receive credible reports of incidents impacting the right to life and physical integrity of Afghans. These include house searches and extra-judicial killings of former government security personnel and officials.”
She termed it a “negative development”, the Taliban’s “inability” to stem the expansion of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Levant Khorasan Province.
“Once limited to a few provinces and Kabul, ISILKP now seems to be present in nearly all provinces and increasingly active,” Lyons said.
She added that the number of attacks has increased significantly, from last year to this year.
In 2020, 60, so far this year, 334 attacks were attributed to ISILKP or claimed by ISILKP.
“ISILKP continues to target the Shi’ite communities. The Taliban insist that they are waging a concerted campaign against ISILKP, but this campaign is worrying in that it appears to rely heavily on extra-judicial detentions and killings of suspected ISILKP members. This is an area deserving more attention from the international community.”
Lyons said her “general impression” is that the Taliban is making “genuine efforts” to present itself as a government.
“These efforts are partly constrained by the lack of resources and capacity, as well as a political ideology that in many ways clashes with contemporary international norms of governance so present in this chamber.”
“The Taliban have not yet established full trust with much of the Afghan population or convinced them of their capacity to govern. The movement is also struggling to manage some serious internal divisions,” she said, adding that ultimately, the Taliban must decide on whether to govern according to the needs and the rights of the diverse Afghan population, or whether to rule on the basis of a narrow ideology and an even narrower ethnic base.
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