After an initial reluctance of four months, Pakistan has now permitted Indian humanitarian aid to reach Afghanistan through its territory. This came after Pakistan changed its initial policy to disallow goods to Afghanistan passing through its soil, and has further gone to appeal to the world to help the Afghan people.
According to the development, the Indian food relief of 50,000 tons of wheat will now reach Afghanistan through Pakistani land. Afghan trucks will run on the Pak-Afghan border from Torkham to Wagha on the Pakistan border with India, will go to Attari to load the wheat and return to Afghanistan with the materials. The recent policy will thus enable Afghans to collect Indian humanitarian aid amidst the deepening economic crisis and food shortages.
However, due to limited transportation capacity, only sixty trucks can run in a day to collect such a large amount of wheat. Therefore, it will take a month to transport 50,000 tonnes of wheat from India to Afghanistan. Considering the logistical challenge ahead, Afghan forces will soon start collecting the aid starting from February 22.
In response to the recent development, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said, “When we are asking the whole world to help the Afghan people, how can we stop India from doing so?” India, in response to the call given by UNO, had decided to help Afghanistan with aid in October last year. But at that time Pakistan didn’t allow the material to be sent from India to Afghanistan through its territory, but now the Imran Khan government has finally budged to pass it through its territory.