Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday he has always stood by the people of Afghanistan and assured visiting Afghan acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi that Islamabad would continue to support their neighboring country.

He also pledged to provide as much humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as possible.

In a series of tweets, Khan said that Pakistan is sending essential food items, emergency medical supplies and winter shelters to Afghanistan to provide immediate relief.

“We will also provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all Afghans traveling across the border into Pakistan,” he said.

Khan also urged the international community to fulfill its collective responsibility to avert a grave humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at Thursday’s Troika Plus meeting in Pakistan that engagement with the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) government must continue in order to help consolidate peace and stability.

Addressing the meeting on the crisis in Afghanistan, Qureshi said currently the group of four nations, US, China, Russia, and Pakistan, has assumed greater significance and has a critical role to play in the Afghanistan situation.

“No one wishes to see a relapse into civil war; no one wants an economic collapse that will spur instability; everyone wants terrorist elements that are operating inside Afghanistan to be tackled effectively. And we all want to prevent a new refugee crisis,” he said, adding that all regional countries have concerns and a shared interest in the country’s peace and stability.

Muttaqi and his delegation are on a three-day visit to Islamabad to meet with Pakistani officials on a wide range of bilateral issues.