Pakistan is responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

The news coming out of Kabul this winter is unfortunately not good. The
Taliban which controls the country has been unable to find the wherewithal
to care for the people of Afghanistan. According to the UN, almost half of the
population of Afghanistan will face hunger crisis between now and March next
year. This revelation comes alongside reports of isolated clashes and violence
affecting civilians and resulting in casualties across Afghanistan in November

2021. The nation most responsible for this current crisis is Pakistan, which
      is the creator, organizer and mentor to the Taliban. Today, Pakistan is using
      the recognition card as a tool to leverage aid to the Afghan people. This
      unfortunate scenario needs to be recognised.
      The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has also accentuated anti-Taliban
      feelings. For instance, in Jalalabad, in Nangarhar Province, gunfire directed
      at Taliban forces resulted in the deaths of two children on 1 November. Two
      days later, a roadside radio-controlled improvised explosive device detonation
      reportedly targeting the Taliban also killed two civilians. Subsequently, armed
      clashes were reported in Bamyan Province, resulting in the injury of five
      people, including one civilian. Violence perpetrated by the Taliban over the
      years has been recognised by the Afghan people and small pockets of popular
      resistance have cropped up. This is a natural outcome of the twenty years of
      change that Afghanistan witnessed since 2001.
      On the humanitarian front, things are getting worse. The latest situation
      report of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on
      Afghanistan shows concern about “conditional humanitarianism” or attempts
      to “leverage” humanitarian assistance for political purposes. Even prior to the
      events of 15 August 2021, the humanitarian situation in the country was one
      of the worst in the world. By the mid-year mark, nearly half of the population,
      some 22 million people, was already in need of humanitarian and protection
      assistance. Protection and safety risks to civilians, particularly women,
      children and people with a disability, were also reaching record highs.
      International donors are also asking that transactions and other activities
      required for humanitarian operations are excluded from the scope of
      sanctions, to allow these activities to continue without impediment. The
      Afghanistan Flash Appeal, which targets 11 million people with aid through
      the end of the year, seeks US$ 606 million and is currently 54 per cent funded.
      Information gathered by the Canada-based think tank International Forum
      for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) shows that shortage of funds and food have
      left the vast majority of Afghans hungry, resulting in many of them selling
      their children to survive.
      IFFRAS data shows that more than 95 per cent of Afghans do not have enough
      food to eat. With winter round the corner in Afghanistan, the combined effect
      of the civil war, Covid-19, drought and economic downturn has severely
      impacted people’s lives, livelihoods and access to food. The UN has found that
      more than one in two Afghans will face emergency levels of food insecurity
      between November 2021 and March 2022. This is then the highest number of
      people facing food insecurity in the last decade since the UN has been
      recording data on food security in Afghanistan.
      That is just one aspect of the challenge facing Afghanistan and its immediate
      neighbourhood. While the internal humanitarian situation is undoubtedly of
      concern, the flow of refugees from Afghanistan into the neighbouring
      countries, mostly to Pakistan and Iran, creates problems of its own kind. More
      than 90 per cent of refugees have fled to these two countries, according to the
      Norwegian Refugee Humanitarian Council. Thus, the existing internal
      challenges are being compounded by the passage of refugees externally.
      Another aspect of the current crisis that is being reported is that of Afghan
      families selling their children to gain access of food. The food crisis in
      Afghanistan has been accentuated by shortages and inability of international
      aid to reach the needy.
      The challenge therefore before the world community is to provide immediate
      humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. This of course requires a clear
      roadmap. The international community must act quickly, wherein the
      importance of working together cannot be overemphasised. There is much
      talk about the need to recognise the Taliban prior to the provision of such aid.
      Speaking at the UNGA in September 2021, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran
      Khan asked the world to recognise the Islamic Emirates government and
      warned of a humanitarian crisis if this was not done.
      This is a conundrum in which, even the United States is caught in as reflected
      in recent remarks made by Jake Sullivan, US Secretary of State. Speaking to
      CNN, Sullivan said the US was not ready to provide humanitarian aid to the
      Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The American position is that they are
      unwilling to provide money directly to the Taliban in order to extend a helping
      hand to the Afghan people. The pre-requisite for the Taliban government in
      Afghanistan, is to act like a responsible government, one which respects the
      rights of women and children, forms an inclusive government, and focuses
      attention on the Afghan people. These are essential and require immediate
      action. Which is why it is very important to also keep the pressure on Pakistan
      to signal to its Taliban henchmen that they need to behave. The general
      consensus is that Pakistan, knows fully well that it has a major responsibility
      to get the Taliban government to operate as per international norms and laws,
      but refuses to see the writing on the wall.
      For a Pakistan, which nurtured, organised and supported the Taliban right
      from its inception, there is a big responsibility towards the Afghan people
      today. If Pakistan is serious about helping the Afghan people, it must allow
      passage of humanitarian aid across its territory from India. India has
      proposed to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat via the land route, as it is the
      quickest, but for some reason, Pakistan procrastinated. The time for using
      the bilateral focus to resist India’s aid, in fact global aid, is over. It is wake up
      time for Pakistan.
      It is precisely this attitude of using recognition as a leverage to gather
      humanitarian aid that is leading to the current impasse. The international
      community has to pressurise the Taliban government to allow large-scale and
      consistent aid to the Afghan people through international aid organizations
      and NGO’s. The way ahead will be torturous for the Afghan people, and it is
      of utmost importance that the world helps them through this winter. The
      humanitarian crisis looming in Afghanistan, is going to be the new pandemic
      that will impact regional security in the mid-term. This is the main lesson
      from the inept takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, done at the behest of
      a selfish Pakistan, with no thought given to the consequences for the people
      of Afghanistan.