Islamabad, Nov 29 (PTI) Pakistan on Monday offered to host the Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers on the situation in Afghanistan and urged the member states to step in to help the Afghan people, who were facing a serious humanitarian situation due to shortage of food and other essential life supplies.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the announcement after Saudi Arabia - the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit Chair - took the initiative to request the Extraordinary Session.

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“Pakistan fully endorses this initiative. We have also offered to host the meeting, in Islamabad, on December17, 2021. We are confident that OIC Member States will endorse this offer,” Qureshi said.

He said that Afghanistan, which is a founding member of the OIC, was currently facing a serious humanitarian situation and millions of Afghans facing an uncertain future due to shortage of food, medicine, and other essential life supplies and urged the OIC to step in to help the Afghan people.

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“We should step-up our collective efforts to alleviate the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, provide immediate and sustained support to them, and continue to remain engaged with them for the well-being and prosperity of Afghanistan,” he said.

Qureshi said that the 1st Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Islamabad in January 1980, on the situation in Afghanistan and he hoped that next month the ministers would once again gather in Islamabad, to reaffirm solidarity and support for the Afghan people.

The Taliban, ousted from power by the US shortly after the 9/11 attacks, seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, ousting the previous elected government which was backed by the West.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)