Pakistan Prime Minister Imran addresses the OIC summit

Islamabad: The economic collapse of Afghanistan, already teetering dangerously on the edge, would have a “horrendous” impact on the region and the world, successive speakers warned Sunday at the start of a one-day summit of foreign ministers from dozens of Islamic countries.

The hastily called meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad brought together dozens of foreign ministers with the special representatives on Afghanistan of major powers, including China, the U.S. and Russia.

The gathering also included the U.N. undersecretary general on humanitarian affairs s well as the president of the Islamic Development Bank Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, who offered several concrete financing proposals. He said the IDB can manage trusts that could be used to move money into Afghanistan, jumpstart businesses and help salvage the deeply troubled economy.

The dire warnings called for the U.S. and other nations to ease sanctions, including the release upward of $10 billion in frozen funds following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug 15. Speakers also called for a quick opening of the country’s banking system and collectively, with the United Nations and international banking institutions, assistance to



Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan directed his remarks to the US, urging Washington to drop preconditions to releasing desperately needed funds and restarting Afghanistan’s banking systems.Khan seemed to offer Taliban a pass on the limits on education for girls, urging the world to understand “cultural sensitivities” and saying human rights and women’s rights meant different things in different countries.

Still other speakers, including the OIC chairman Hussain Ibrahim Taha, emphasized the need for protection of human rights, particularly those of women and girls.The new Taliban rulers’ acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was in attendance in the grand hall of Pakistani Parliament, where dozens of foreign ministers from many of the 57-nation OIC had gathered.

“This gathering is about the Afghan people,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who warned that without immediate aid, Afghanistan was certain to collapse. He said it would have “horrendous consequences,” not just in Afghan lives lost to starvation and disease, but would most certainly result in a mass exodus of Afghans. Chaos would spread, he predicted, and allow terrorism and the drug trade to flourish.