Afghanistan humanitarian crisis to affect Pakistan, warn Senators

Pakistan's senators have warned that a humanitarian crisis is brewing in Afghanistan that could have serious ramifications for Pakistan's national security, local media reported on Tuesday.

Speaking on the rapidly developing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Former Senate chairman and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Mian Raza Rabbani said that Pakistan would be affected the most by a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and it would have an impact on the country's national security, Dawn reported.

Rabbani also referred to the commitments made by the Afghan Taliban that terrorism would not be exported to Pakistan, and raised questions over the talks held with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) without taking parliament into confidence. He said the so-called ceasefire reached with the TTP had repeatedly been violated by the other side.

Highlighting the recent attack in the country, PPP's parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said the recent terror attacks in the country were of a grave nature. She said the ruling government must hold the Afghan Taliban accountable for the use of their country's soil for conducting attacks inside Pakistan.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami said that the US and its allies were responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. He said a large number of Afghans, including children, were facing hunger in the war-torn country.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated drastically since the Taliban took control of Kabul last year in mid-August.

A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban, have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis.

( With inputs from ANI )