THE Taliban’s prime minister called yesterday on Muslim nations to be the first to officially recognize their government, as aid-dependent Afghanistan faces economic collapse.

No country has yet recognized the Taliban. Although the group has promised a softer rule in line with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are largely excluded from government employment and secondary schools for girls are mostly shuttered.

“I call on Muslim countries to take the lead and recognize us officially. Then I hope we will be able to develop quickly,” Mohammad Hassan Akhund told a conference in Kabul called to address the country’s massive economic woes.

“We don’t want it for the officials. We want it for our public,” he said, adding that the Taliban had fulfilled all necessary conditions by restoring peace and security.

Afghanistan is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover in August that prompted Western countries to freeze international aid and access to billions of U.S. dollars worth of assets held abroad.

The country was almost entirely dependent on foreign aid under the previous U.S.-backed government, but jobs have dried up and most civil servants haven’t been paid for months.

The International Labor Organization said yesterday half a million Afghans lost their jobs in the third quarter of 2021, and this was expected to rise to 900,000 by the middle of this year — with women disproportionately affected.

With poverty deepening and a drought devastating farming in many areas, the United Nations has warned that half the 38 million population faces food shortages.

The U.N. Security Council last month unanimously adopted a U.S. resolution to allow some aid to reach desperate Afghans without violating international sanctions.

But there are growing calls from rights groups and aid organizations for the West to release more funds — particularly in the middle of a harsh winter.

“Our situation still depends on the Americans. It will only get better if they decide to stop the sanctions,” said Mohammad Moktar Nasseri, a former police officer who now sells vegetables at a Kabul market.

Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi told yesterday’s conference that the government “would not sacrifice the independence of the country’s economy by bending to the conditions of donors.”

Last month a meeting of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) declined to formally recognize the government.

But the OIC did pledge to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in frozen Afghan assets.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the only nations to recognize the first Taliban government after they came to power in 1996 following a civil war.

(SD-Agencies)