OIC meet in Islamabad: Pakistan warns of the dire risks over Afghan economic meltdown

OIC meet in Islamabad: Pakistan warns of the dire risks over Afghan economic meltdown

Pakistan warned on Sunday of "grave consequences" for the international community if Afghanistan's economic meltdown continued, urging world leaders to find ways to engage with the country's Taliban leaders to help prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Speaking at the opening of a special meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the fallout from the deepening crisis could mean mass hunger, a flood of refugees and a rise in extremism. "We cannot ignore the danger of complete economic meltdown," he told the gathering, which also included Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi alongside delegates from the United States, China, Russia, the European Union and UN. The meeting is the biggest major conference on Afghanistan since the US-backed government fell in August and the Taliban returned to power. Since then, billions of dollars in aid and assets have been frozen by the international community, and the nation of 38 million now faces a bitter winter, according to Agence France-Presse. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian emergency with a combined food, fuel and cash crisis. Qureshi said the OIC was being asked