New Delhi: Pakistan on Monday accepted India's request to send 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat as humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan through its border. The news was confirmed by the official twitter handle of Pakistan Prime Minister's Office which stated that Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the humanitarian aid to be sent by India to Afghanistan via Pakistan's territory. However, no formalities regarding this have been finalized yet.
Simultaneously, PM Imran Khan also announced that Pakistan would also facilitate the return of Afghan patients who had come to India for treatment and were stuck there. PM Khan instructed all his ministries to provide maximum facilities to the Afghans.
According to news agency PTI, last month, India had announced to send 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan as humanitarian aid and requested Pakistan to allow it to send food grains via the Wagah border. Currently, Pakistan only allows Afghanistan to export goods to India but doesn't allow any other two-way trade through the border crossing.
Reportedly, Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Ahmed Muttaki had requested PM Imran Khan last week to allow India to send wheat via Pakistan. He had said that the Taliban government is ready to take humanitarian help from India.
Imran Khan has ordered immediate shipment of humanitarian aid worth 5 billion rupees which will include 50000 metric tonnes of wheat, food items including emergency medical supplies.
The decisions were taken during the first Apex Committee meeting of the newly established Afghanistan Inter-ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC) in Islamabad, chaired by Imran Khan with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and several ministers and military officials in attendance.