Interior Minister vows not let any terrorist organization to disturb peace
ISLAMABAD
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Sunday appealed to the international community to unfreeze the bank accounts of Afghanistan’s government.
Talking to the media persons on Sunday, the interior minister termed it an unwise decision to freeze the bank accounts of Afghanistan’s government.
He said that there is a need to release their assets to avoid any humanitarian crisis and let the Afghan people utilise their money for their benefit.
Rashid said that Pakistan is only interested in peace and stability in the neighbouring country. Rubbishing Indian media’s false propaganda, the interior minister said that fencing at Pakistan-Afghanistan border is aimed at curbing terrorism.
“We are the facilitator of peace,” he said, adding that Pakistan arranged a meeting between Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and the US officials in Doha.
Talking about Pakistan’s efforts for peace in Afghanistan, the interior minister said that Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed hosted a meeting of eight intelligence chiefs of various countries on the Afghan situation.
Responding to a question, he said that there is not a single refugee camp across the country.
Since the Taliban took control of Kabul, the international financial institutions suspended all kinds of assistance to Afghanistan and the US had frozen foreign reserves of Afghanistan. At the time of the fall of Kabul, the Afghan State Bank had $9 billion foreign reserves and more than $7 billion were with the US banks that were immediately frozen by Washington. This means that the new interim Afghan government can’t have access to those assets.
Afghanistan is currently facing a shortage of dollars as beside other countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have also seized its reserves.
According to the IMF, the central bank’s gross reserves totalled $9.4 billion at the end of April. But most of those funds are held outside of Afghanistan.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad says the government will not let any terrorist organization to disturb peace in country.
Talking to media in Karachi today, he said the purpose of fencing along Pak-Afghan border is to stop cross border movement of terrorists.
The Interior Minister said the PTI government’s foreign policy has won Pakistan an important role in regional peace. Sheikh Rasheed said Pakistan has been hosting over four million Afghan refugees for decades.
