Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday told the National Assembly that Pakistan is not seeking permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC). In a written reply to the National Assembly the Minister said that Pakistan has consistently and unambiguously advocated for expansion in the non-permanent membership category of the UN Security Council.
He said that the non-permanent members being elected through the democratic method of elections in the General Assembly are accountable to the general membership. "The very notion of permanent membership negates the essence of democracy and accountability. We have therefore, opposed creation of new centres of privilege by expansion in the permanent membership category for individual member states. The permanent members, being accountable to no one, are more likely to promote their own interests rather than interests of the general membership," he said.
He said that Pakistan therefore, believes that expansion in the permanent membership category will make the Security Council less transparent, less democratic and less accountable to the general membership. In our view, the future of UN and of succeeding generations cannot and must not be premised on considerations of power politics and politics of expediency. We had no choice in 1945, but today we all enjoy the democratic right to make correct decisions, he said.
The Minister said that unfortunately insistence by a few individual countries on permanent membership of the Security Council has proved highly divisive and has held the whole process of Security Council reform hostage to their individual aspirations. "We have maintained that the reform of the Security Council should be achieved with the widest consensus among the Member States.," he said.
"Pakistan, along with Uniting for Consensus (UFC) group of like minded countries, has adopted an open and pragmatic approach to the reform issue. We support expansion in the non-permanent category of Security Council membership to make it more democratic, effective and capable of responding to the challenges of the 21st century." Qureshi said.
He said that it is clear, Pakistan is not a candidate for permanent membership of the Security Council. But we support comprehensive reform of the Security Council addressing all the five issues together. "In our view, any effort at quick fix or artificial deadlines will complicate the whole reform process."
He said that the Security Council consists of 15 members including five veto wielding permanent members. The ten other non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for a two year non-renewable term on the basis of equitable geographical representation. The current efforts to reform the Security Council date back to early 1990s, he said.
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