Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s comment—on respecting Afghan 'cultural sensitivities' regarding girls’ education—evoked furious reactions from non-Taliban Afghan leaders, with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai advising Pakistan “not to speak on behalf of Afghanistan” and avoid “interfering" in the country's "internal affairs".

On Sunday, speaking at the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) on Afghanistan, Khan said not letting girls’ education was part of Afghan culture and urged the world to remain mindful of “cultural sensitivities”.

The remarks at the OIC summit, held in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to rally Muslim countries in the support of Afghan people, came at a time when not only the international community but also civil society in Afghanistan have been trying hard to press the Taliban, the country’s new rulers, to allow girls’ education and women’s right to work. For many in Afghanistan, the remark came as an open endorsement of the Taliban’s misogynist policies by the Pakistani leader. 

Calling Khan’s remark “an insult to the Afghan people”, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, in a strongly-worded statement, described it as an “attempt to sow discord among Afghans.” In a Twitter thread on Monday, Karzai also urged “The Government of Pakistan to strictly refrain from propagating against Afghanistan and interfering our internal affairs.” 

“Pakistan should avoid speaking on behalf of Afghanistan in international forums," Karzai said, adding "It should work towards creating positive and civilized relations between the two countries.”  Karzai, who was president for 13 long years from 2001 to 2014, had earlier made the same remarks just after the fall of Kabul.

Importantly, this is not the first time when the Pakistan prime minister came out in the open defending what, for many, the seemingly indefensible policies of the Taliban on women’s rights. Even if one goes by the standards of conservative Islamic countries anywhere in the world, Khan’s apparent defense of the Taliban’s restriction on women, behind the barb of “cultural sensitivities”, is all but farcical. 

Khan used the binary of the city and rural cultures, claiming the former is different from the latter in its outlook on girls’ education. However, this is far from true as many villages in southern Afghanistan, the country’s most conservative region, recently saw rallies demanding girls’ schools. 

Amrullah Saleh, former Afghan vice president, also considered as one of the fiercest critics of Pakistan, termed Khan’s remark “calculated”. Calling it “disgusting and ignorant”, Saleh said in a Tweet on Monday, “For Afghanistan, to be dependent on Islamabad, it has to be un-educated and Taliban run. GHQ’s (Pakistan’s military headquarters) was presented as Afghan ‘reality’”.

Ever since the Taliban’s takeover— and the group’s subsequent international isolation—Imran Khan has emerged as the Taliban’s key backer, though isolated in several international forums. In many of his statements, Khan presented the Taliban’s harsh societal interpretation—even when many of them fiercely contested by Afghans themselves—as the common traditional Afghan culture, which, according to him, the western world remains ignorant of. 

For many nationalist Afghans, Taliban’s faction included, these statements also give a sense as if Afghanistan had become a non-official province of Pakistan.  

However, as history shows that any regime that rules Kabul and desires domestic legitimacy can hardly afford such an impression for long. Recent highly critical remarks by the Taliban’s second-rung leaders against Pakistan - and its intelligence agency ISI - and its refusal to accept the contested Durand Line as the de jure border between the two countries only vindicate the point. 

Meanwhile, the OIC has set up a trust fund for Afghanistan which would be managed by the OIC’s Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The latter, however, has received no donation so far, media reports said. 
 
The Sunday conference, attended by 20 foreign ministers and 10 deputy foreign ministers of members countries along with special representatives of China, the US, and Russia, resolved to move donors’ money into Afghanistan to avoid the freefall of the Afghan economy. 

Afghanistan’s economy shrunk by almost 30 percent this year, with UN agencies now warning of universal poverty that would bring 97 percent of the total population below the poverty line. 

The OIC also appointed a special envoy for Afghanistan Tariq Ali Bakheet, who is currently OIC’s assistant secretary-general for humanitarian, cultural, and social affairs. Bakheet, after the session on Sunday, also held discussions with Taliban’s foreign minister Ameer Khan Muttaqi, who was also there in Islamabad. 

Many key speakers, including OIC Chairman Hussain Ibrahim Taha, however, pressed the Taliban to respect human rights, especially those of women and girls. 

He also urged Washington to drop preconditions for releasing desperately needed funds and restarting Afghanistan’s banking systems, warning that without urgent assistant the economy would collapse with grave consequences for the region and world. 

A state collapse would unleash a mass exodus of Afghan people, with increased risks of smuggling and flourishing drug trade, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said after the session. 

Despite a show of solidarity, doubts remain over the effectiveness of any response that comes from the OIC, a group riddled with competing—and often contradictory—geopolitical interests of its members. Further complicating the scene is the Taliban’s continued association—and its reluctance to break away— with the global terrorist organization Al-Qaeda which still threatens several governments in the Islamic world, including Saudi Arabia, the most influential country in the grouping. 

(SAM)