ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has called for returning Afghanistan’s assets held inthe United States (US) to the Afghan people, Pakistani state media reportedon Saturday.
US President Joe Biden freed and split $7 billion between humanitarian aidfor Afghanistan and a fund for September 11 victims.
International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollarsof the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the US, were frozen after theTaliban took control of the country in August as the US military withdrew.
No money would immediately be released. But Biden’s order calls for banksto provide $3.5 billion of the frozen amount to a trust fund fordistribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs.The other $3.5 billion would stay in the US to finance payments fromlawsuits by US victims of terrorism that are still working their waythrough the courts.
Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UnitedNations (UN) in New York, said the money was “critically needed” to revivethe economy of the war-battered country.
“We have consistently joined the calls of the international community aswell as the senior UN officials and the international humanitarian actorsto unfreeze Afghanistan’s reserves,” Ambassador Akram was quoted as saying.
“This money is critically needed to revive and sustain the Afghan economy,inject much-needed liquidity, and to save millions of lives in the middleof a harsh winter. In addition, this money is also needed to provide basicamenities to the people including health and education as well as to buildcritical infrastructure.”
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The Pakistani diplomat said returning these assets at this criticaljuncture would be the most effective and generous display of solidaritywith the people of Afghanistan.
Asked to comment on the US move to split $7 billion in assets from theAfghan central bank, Ambassador Akram remarked, “Half a loaf is better thannone.”
He, however, said there was something wrong with a financial system where“one state can unilaterally block the national assets of another to pay offquestionable claims by its own citizens.”
The funds were deposited by Afghanistan’s central bank in the United Statesbefore the Taliban took over last year. They have since been madeunavailable to the new Afghan authorities.
Much of the money came from the US and other international donors over thelast 20 years.
