At the Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue held in Kabul on 20 August 2025, Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached a landmark agreement to extend CPEC into Afghanistan.
Religious minority prisoners in Pakistan are subjected to systemic discrimination, harsh treatment and denial of basic rights compared to their Muslim counterparts.
Of Islamabad's approximately 41,520 registered Afghan citizens, many retain memories of earlier refuge. Before 2006, some 25,000 had lived in a refugee camp within the Islamabad Capital Territory.
For Pakistan, the challenge now is twofold: to address the immediate humanitarian needs of thousands of displaced people, and to commit to the long-term infrastructure, environmental and policy changes needed to withstand the storms of a warming world.
Terming forced religious conversion and forced marriage of Christian and Hindu minor girls to older Muslim men as the most concerning issue, the report notes that there are few legal options available to the victims.
While the removal of the death penalty for two relatively obscure crimes was welcomed by international rights groups, many activists argue the government’s action is insufficient.
Pakistan has sentenced 108 members of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party to prison over their alleged involvement in protests against the military in May 2023.
The UN appeal comes at a moment when humanitarian funding is already stretched by multiple crises. While CERF has provided rapid support, broader donor commitments remain insufficient relative to the scale of projected need.
South Asia’s lead crisis is not inevitable. Experience elsewhere demonstrates that decisive regulation, industrial formalisation and community-level interventions can sharply reduce exposure.
The UN appeal comes at a moment when humanitarian funding is already stretched by multiple crises. While CERF has provided rapid support, broader donor commitments remain insufficient relative to the scale of projected need.