Pak agrees to let India transport life-saving drugs, wheat to Afghanistan

Pakistan on Friday agreed to let India transport 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and life-saving drugs as humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan on Afghan trucks through the Wagah border crossing, after a row erupted between the two countries over the modalities of transportation.

Islamabad conveyed to New Delhi on Friday that the trucks of Afghanistan would be allowed to use the territory of Pakistan to transport wheat and medicines from India to the conflict-ravaged country now ruled by the Taliban.

Mansoor Ahmed Khan, Islamabad’s envoy to Kabul, posted on Twitter that Pakistan had decided to allow use of its territory for transportation of wheat and emergency medicines from India on trucks of Afghanistan.

A source told DH that New Delhi’s acting envoy to Islamabad, M Suresh Kumar, had a meeting with the senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan and discussed the modalities for transport of medicines and about 50,000 MT of wheat from India to Afghanistan.

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Though it has not yet recognised the Taliban’s government in Kabul, India has formally conveyed to the UN Security Council on November 18 its willingness to send humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan. New Delhi has been negotiating with Imran Khan's government on use of territory of Pakistan for transport of medicines and food-grains from India to Afghanistan.

Islamabad had initially turned down New Delhi’s proposal for trucks from India carrying the banners of the United Nations transporting the humanitarian aid to Afghanistan through the territory of Pakistan. It had insisted that it would only use trucks registered in Pakistan to ply between India and Afghanistan.

Even before the Taliban took over Kabul, a humanitarian crisis was already unfolding in Afghanistan, as a result of continued conflict, severe drought, Covid-19 pandemic, failing health system and economic slowdown. It worsened after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. The UN World Food Programme estimated that one in every three Afghans had already been facing severe hunger and now 95 percent of families were not consuming enough food.

The conflict-ravaged country is on the brink of economic collapse, with the local currency at an all-time low and food prices on the rise. “Acute malnutrition is above emergency thresholds in 27 out of 34 provinces, and is expected to worsen, with almost half of children under five and a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women needing life-saving nutrition support in the next 12 months,” the WFP stated in a global appeal for support for Afghanistan. It estimated that it would urgently need $200 million to help people in need across Afghanistan between now and the end of the year.

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