If world ignores admin vacuum…: Afghanistan may face crisis-like situation, says Fawad

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Hussain Chaudhry said on Saturday that a crisis-like situation would emerge in Afghanistan if the world community ignored the administrative vacuum there.

Addressing a press conference here at Sindh Governor House on Saturday, Fawad said the government had been keenly watching the evolving situation in Afghanistan.

He said the entire international community had recognised the efforts being made by Pakistan to ensure timely evacuation of foreigners from Afghanistan.

He said the European Union countries that had earlier placed a ban on PIA were now requesting to avail themselves of the service of the national flag carrier of Pakistan for evacuating their citizens trapped in Afghanistan. He urged the international community to use intelligence for making its decisions instead of using force for the same.

He said that evacuation of foreigners from Afghanistan was indeed a big issue but even the bigger issue was administrative void persisting in the neighbouring country.

He urged the international community to sense the threats present in this regard.

The information minister said that Pakistan had already expressed its reservations regarding the situation in Afghanistan. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s narrative on Afghanistan had fully come true.

He said that the situation in Afghanistan would have been much better, had the world acted upon the advice of Pakistan. “Even if Pakistan’s advice is acted upon today, the situation will improve tomorrow,” he said.

He urged the world community not to leave Afghanistan alone as all the countries of the world were conjoined so they should take care of one another.

He said that rest of the world shouldn’t wait till such time that Afghanistan emerged as a failed state. He said that people of Afghanistan should be empowered to form the government in their native land. He said that an inclusive government should be formed in Afghanistan keeping in view the ethnic complexities of the country.

He said that negotiations should continue to take place with the present day rulers of neighbouring country.

He advised Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to present the performance of Pakistan People’s Party’s rule continuing in the province for the past 13 years on the same lines the PTI’s federal government had recently presented performance of its regime in the country during past three years.

He said that Rs1,900 billion had been transferred to the Sindh government by the Centre during the past three years as the provincial authorities should let people of the province know as to where this amount had been spent.

He said the PMLN should also inform the masses about its performance as the main opposition political party in the country during past three years.

He said the economic situation of the country had been improving despite persisting situation of coronavirus. He said that Pakistan was adjudged as the third best country in the world after New Zealand and Hong Kong during the coronavirus health emergency. He said that foreign currency reserves had increased to $27 billion from $16.4 billion during the past three years.

He said the current account deficit had decreased to $1.8 billion from $20 billion. He said the tax recoveries of the government had increased to Rs4,700 billion from Rs3,800 billion. He said that foreign remittances had increased to $29.4 billion from $19.9 billion during the past three years.

He said that industrial development had increased by 18 percent while cement production had increased by 42 percent. He said the farmers’ fraternity in the country was able to earn Rs1,100 billion more during the past three years while the confidence of the businessmen community had increased by 108 percent during the same period.