Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will deliver keynote address at the Session of the Organization of Islamic Corporation.
Pakistan will be hosting the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Corporation’s Council of Foreign Ministers on December 19 at the Parliament House in Islamabad where the keynote address will be delivered by.
The meeting’s focus is on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan where the United Nations is warning nearly 23 million people – about 55 percent of the population – face extreme levels of hunger, with nearly 9 million at risk of famine as winter takes hold in the impoverished, landlocked country.
Other than foreign ministers from Islamic countries, delegations from the European Union and the so-called P5 group of the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China are also invited. Sunday’s session will be kicked off with a statement from Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, who will chair the extraordinary session, followed by a statement by the foreign minister for Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud, who is the OIC summit chair.
There will also be statements by Hissein Brahim Taha, Secretary General of the OIC, the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr Muhammad Al-Jasser and statements on behalf of the OIC Regional Groups for Asia, Africa, and Arab states.
The statements will follow “Keynote Address by H.E. Imran Khan Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the foreign office said. “Tentatively 1830 onwards joint press conference of Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and OIC Secretary General H.E. Hissein Brahim Taha.”
There have been growing warnings of the humanitarian crisis facing Afghanistan since international aid was abruptly cut following the Taliban takeover on August 15 and fears of disaster if the situation is not brought under control.
However, getting help in has been hindered by sanctions on dealing with the Taliban, the US decision to freeze billions of dollars of central bank reserves held outside Afghanistan and the collapse of much of the country’s banking system.
