Daily Times

It’s about time that the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution to clear the way for aid to reach Afghanistan and headlines about at least two dozen trucks full of food and medicines crossing the Pak-Afghan border must have provided a welcome ray of hope to millions of Afghans, even though what has been sent so far is minuscule considering their needs. Still, it’s a promising start and since Saudi aid also went across the border, the OIC summit’s fruits are also beginning to show. It’s a shame, though, that a protest about alleged rigging in the recent local body polls blocked part of the road to the border, which threatened to hold back the aid for no reason at all.

It’s still a very big problem that Washington continues to drag its feet on the matter of relaxing sanctions on Kabul and especially unfreezing Afghanistan’s money in foreign banks. The world’s sole superpower ought to know better than to show the whole world that it got so badly stung by its unceremonious scramble from Afghanistan that it taking revenge on the Afghan people in return. That’s because the sanctions don’t really harm the Taliban regime as much as they do ordinary citizens who had nothing to do with the events that brought the Americans to their country, the long and ugly war that followed, or the manner in which the Taliban were able to retake the capital.

Kabul should appreciate Islamabad’s efforts in these hard times. If it hadn’t been for the government of Pakistan, whatever little aid has come to the country would also not have been possible. That’s why it’s disturbing to hear news about Taliban soldiers destroying the border fence in some areas and trying to pick a fight with the Pakistani border force. The Taliban leadership should address this problem immediately. Now that the Afghan leadership’s prayers are beginning to get answered, they too must show the responsibility expected of them. *