Pakistan begins its two-year tenure as non-permanent member of UNSC, features seat on terror sanctions committee

Islamabad: Pakistan started its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Safety Council (UNSC) on January 1, with Ambassador Munir Akram saying that the Pakistani delegation will play an “lively and constructive” position in addressing key challenges going through the world. “Our presence shall be felt within the Safety Council,” Ambassador Akram, Pakistan’s prime diplomat on the UN, instructed state-run APP (Related Press of Pakistan) information company.
From Wednesday, Pakistan will sit within the Safety Council for the 2025-26 time period as a non-permanent member — the eighth time that the nation has had a seat on the 15-member physique’s horseshoe desk.
Pakistan features the bulk with an enormous margin
In June, Pakistan was elected to the council with a large majority as a non-permanent member, polling 182 votes within the 193-member Normal Meeting — way over the required 124 votes representing a two-thirds majority. “We enter the council at a time of nice geopolitical turbulence, intense competitors between the 2 largest powers, raging wars in Europe, the Center East, Africa and elsewhere and a sharply escalating and multi-dimensional arms race,” Akram mentioned.
“As a accountable State — the fifth largest by inhabitants — Pakistan will play an lively and constructive position, in accordance with the UN Constitution, to halt wars, promote the pacific settlement of disputes and include the adverse impacts of nice energy rivalries, the arms race, new weapons and domains of battle in addition to the spreading scourge of terrorism,” he mentioned.
Pakistan earlier phrases at UN
Pakistan changed Japan, which at the moment occupies the Asian seat within the Safety Council, a major instrument for establishing and sustaining worldwide peace. Pakistan’s earlier phrases on the council had been in 2012-13, 2003-04, 1993-94, 1983-84, 1976-77, 1968-69 and 1952-53.
Within the June election within the Normal Meeting, Pakistan was elected together with Denmark, Greece, Panama and Somalia — to interchange Japan, Ecuador, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland whose phrases finish on December 31, 2024. The brand new members be a part of the 5 veto-wielding everlasting members the USA, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France and the 5 international locations elected as non-permanent members final yr Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
Why is it essential for Pakistan?
Pakistan may also acquire a seat on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, tasked with designating people and teams linked to those organisations as terrorists and implementing sanctions. This place provides Pakistan a vital platform to highlight cross-border terrorist assaults originating from Afghanistan by teams with longstanding ties to the militant Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
Whereas veto energy stays unique to everlasting members, non-permanent members maintain substantial sway in terrorism-related sanctions committees, the place selections are reached by consensus primarily based on established norms. Nonetheless, the rising polarization throughout the Safety Council and the fractured state of worldwide politics might problem Islamabad’s capability to advance its diplomatic priorities successfully.
(With inputs from company)
Additionally Learn: ‘Shehbaz, Nawaz no critical politicians’: Pakistan slammed on silence over Manmohan Singh’s demise