The Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East & Africa (CAMEA) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) held a special In-House meeting on “OIC and Afghanistan” on December 22, 2021. The distinguished speakers included: Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General ISSI, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, Chairman BOG, ISSI, Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the OIC, Dr Murat Aslan, SETA Security Researcher and Faculty Member at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Mr Sabah Al-Mukhtar, Partner at Arab Lawyers Network, Dr Sibghatullah Ghaznavi, former Deputy Minister of Municipalities at the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), Senator Sehar Kamran, Patron in Chief, Centre for Pakistan & Gulf Studies (CPGS), Ambassador Abrar Hussain, former Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan, Dr Daud Abdullah, Director Middle East Monitor (MEMO), UK, Dr Fayez Farahat, Director of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Mr Hashmat Moslish, Independent Political Analyst with special focus on Afghanistan, Ambassador Naela Chohan, former Pakistan Diplomat, Dr Nazir Hussain, Professor and Dean Social Sciences and Humanities at University of Wah, Mr Ahmad Shah Durrani, author of ‘An Outside the Box Look at Afghanistan: New Ideas for Lasting Peace and Stability’, Dr Qandeel Abbas, Associate Professor, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Mr Hashim Pashtun, Advisor for Research Analysis at the Kabul Institute for Peace and Dr Adil.
During her introductory remarks, Ms. Amina Khan, Director CAMEA stated that Pakistan has been a staunch advocate of a peaceful solution to the conflict which has revolved around a negotiated settlement with the Taliban. Pakistan has been at the forefront to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and has made repeated calls to the international community not to ‘abandon’ the people of Afghanistan, provide humanitarian and economic assistance and engage with the political dispensation in Afghanistan to avert a collapse of the state. While the OIC meeting is a much needed step in the right direction, and certainly reassuring, it is going to take much more to ensure that some semblance of stability returns to Afghanistan, where it can have a functioning economy. Hence in such dire circumstances, it is important for the international community to move away from politics, remain engaged with the Taliban by providing much needed humanitarian aid and economic assistance and push towards a consolidated effort to ensure that Afghanistan does not collapse into a humanitarian disaster.
