As a goodwill gesture to the Afghan people, Pakistan formally informed India on Wednesday that it will allow the shipment of 50,000 tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines from India to Afghanistan via the Wagah land border.

Pakistan had not cleared the transportation of relief materials via land routes, so India’s offer to supply wheat and other essential items as humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan had been pending for more than a month.

Because there are currently no flights connecting India and Afghanistan, transporting the materials through Pakistan was seen as the most expedient way to get the aid to Afghanistan, which is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.

According to an official statement from the Pakistani side, the decision of the Pakistani government was formally communicated to the charge d’affaires of the Indian high commission in Islamabad at the foreign ministry.

“As a goodwill gesture to the brotherly Afghan people, the Government of Pakistan has decided to allow the transportation of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and life-saving medicines from India to Afghanistan via the Wagah Border on an exceptional basis for humanitarian purposes,” according to the statement.

The announcement was more of a formality, as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that his government would allow the transportation of India’s wheat to Afghanistan as soon as modalities between Islamabad and New Delhi were finalised.

Even a Taliban delegation that recently visited Islamabad raised the issue of allowing wheat to be shipped with Pakistan’s top leaders.

As winter approaches, the UN has warned that up to 23 million Afghans will face “crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity.” Food insecurity is expected to reach emergency levels in ten of Afghanistan’s most densely populated urban areas.

Khan made the announcement as he approved a package of humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. He also stated that Pakistan will assist Afghan nationals who had travelled to India for medical treatment but were stranded there.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, hundreds of Afghan nationals, including patients seeking medical treatment and their relatives or attendants, have been stranded in India for months.

Some of them have returned to Afghanistan via Iran in recent weeks on a few specially arranged flights. The fare for this route, however, was $850, which was out of reach for many of the stranded Afghans.

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