ISLAMABAD, 19 November 2021, (TON): Pakistan drew the world community’s attention to the dire humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan and fervently called for lifting the “unjustified freeze” on the war-torn country’s assets to enable it to deal with the critical situation.

Ambassador Munir Akram told UN Security Council while highlighting that 28 million Afghans were facing acute food insecurity

“Cash is needed to revive the economy – to pay salaries, restore small businesses, revive the banking system.”

Speaking in the 15-member council’s meeting on Afghanistan, the Pakistani envoy warned that the consequences of a major humanitarian crisis and economic collapse would be horrendous, massive human suffering, the outflow of millions of more Afghan refugees, the likelihood of chaos and further conflict and reinforcement of Da’ish and other terrorist groups.

Ambassador Akram said “when the millions of Afghan refugees start flowing across our borders, we who are hosting 4 million Afghan refugees already will not be able to take more, they will have to go elsewhere.”

“These are consequences which the international community must avoid.”