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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has questioned the US decision of setting aside half of the Afghan assets held by America for the victims of the 9/11 attacks, saying utilisation of Afghan funds should be the “sovereign decision of Afghanistan.”
The reaction from the foreign office on Saturday came after President Joe Biden decided to split $7 billion foreign assets of Afghanistan between the victims of the 9/11 attacks and for the humanitarian assistance of Afghanistan.
The decision was even being criticised within the US with many people including victims’ families of the 9/11 attacks insisting that Afghan funds should not have been arbitrarily used by the US government.
“Pakistan has seen the US decision to unfreeze the Afghan assets held by the US banks to release $3.5 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and $3.5 billion for compensation to families of 9/11 victims,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a statement.
The FO spokesman noted that over the past several months, Pakistan had been consistently emphasising the need for the international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked.
“Finding ways to unfreeze the Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people,” the statement read.
It further stated that Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that “these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released.” “The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson said.
The statement also drew attention towards the Afghan people, who are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. “Time is of the essence,” the statement concluded.
The $7 billion in funds from Da Afghanistan Bank, the country’s central bank, that were on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, have been frozen since then-President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed after the Taliban takeover at the end of August 2021.