Islamabad, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday announced that Islamabad will allow 50,000 MT of wheat from India as humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan to go through Pakistan as soon as modalities are finalised with the Indian side.
The Pakistan Prime Minister made the announcement during a visit to the newly-established Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC) on Monday where he chaired the first Apex Committee meeting of AICC.
The Prime Minister's Office, Pakistan, in tweets said: “He also announced Pakistan’s decision to allow the 50,000 MT of wheat India has offered to provide Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance to go through Pakistan as soon as modalities are finalized with the Indian side.”
He also announced that Pakistan will facilitate the return of Afghan patients who had gone to India for medical treatment and are stuck there.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Advisor on Finance Shaukat Fayaz Tarin, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, National Security Adviser Dr. Moeed Yousaf and senior civil and military officers.
Monday’s formal announcement comes days after Imran Khan conveyed to a Taliban delegation that he would allow Indian trucks carrying wheat "on exceptional basis".
On November 12, Imran Khan told an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan delegation led by Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi that Islamabad would “favourably consider” the request by the Afghan Taliban to allow trucks carrying Indian wheat through Pakistan “on exceptional basis”.
Sources in India had earlier said that New Delhi wants to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, where a food crisis has emerged, but Pakistan has denied access to its trucks through its territory.
“We would like to help, but we need quick access to Afghanistan, which Pakistan has denied to us. Pakistan claims to be concerned about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, then it should allow humanitarian aid from India,” sources in New Delhi had said.