Islamabad: Pakistan seems to be facing difficulties in providing technical, financial and expert support to the transition government in Afghanistan in the absence of the regime’s international recognition despite emerging challenges like food crisis in the war-torn country.

At a meeting in Islamabad presided over by Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan on Tuesday, key stakeholders considered various strategies to support the new Afghan administration through capacity building and technical expertise under crash programmes but the major challenge was how to do that without recognition by the world of the Afghan government.

Sources said the meeting was told that the biggest challenge for the Afghan administration was the void created by major exodus of technical and financial experts soon after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the report said. The meeting called to discuss economic cooperation with Afghanistan was attended by Pakistan Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman retired Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain and other senior officials.

The 'brain drain' left major institutions, particularly of technical and financial nature, incapacitated to take over essential services like electricity, medical and financial facilities for smooth operations. The meeting noted that the SBP management could arrange and provide crash training courses to Afghanistan by inviting their staff to Pakistan. At this stage, the Afghan central bank is incapacitated and requires urgent international reorganisation and capacity building for financial settlements.

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