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Pakistan reaffirms commitment to UN Peacekeeping Operations

Pakistan reaffirms commitment to UN Peacekeeping Operations
May 10, 2019
NEW YORK (92 News) – Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in conflict zones around the world. Speaking in the UN Security Council’s open debate on training and capacity building for United Nations peacekeeping missions, Pakistani Ambassador to UN Maleeha Lodhi underscored the need for the UN to undertake political processes along with its peacekeeping efforts to attain durable peace and stability. She said Pakistan is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping, with over five thousand troops serving in missions in hotspots around the world. Pakistan, she said, is also host to one of the earliest peacekeeping missions, namely the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region.
Denial of self-determination to Kashmiris violation of UN Charter
Pakistan has told the UN General Assembly that the continued denial of the right to self-determination to the people of Indian-held Jammu Kashmir (IHK) was not only a travesty of justice, but also an “egregious violation” of the UN Charter. Addressing a special meeting of the 193-member Assembly to commemorate the “International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace”, Pakistan’s Ambassador to UN Maleeha Lodhi urged the international community to stand united against any attempts to undermine the sanctity of the UN Charter or to reinterpret its fundamental provisions to suit narrow aims. “If the primacy of ‘we the peoples’ is to be more than just words,” Ambassador Lodhi underscored, the fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter must be ensured to all peoples. She also pointed to a growing tendency in the world by some to erode well-established norms of international law, including respect for sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states, and the prohibition of the use of force.
Pakistani envoy warns against unilateralism
Warning against unilateralism, the Pakistani envoy said that the only alternative to a rules-based global order was global disorder. In the increasingly interconnected world, international cooperation is imperative, she asserted, underpinned by the core values of mutual respect and tolerance.
Frustration into a rejection of international order
“After all global challenges require global responses and solutions. Across many parts of the world, a conflation of economic distress and nationalistic passions has found refuge in a populist discourse that seeks to turn a widespread sense of resentment and frustration into a rejection of the international order,” Maleeha said. “These doubts needed to be pushed back by a stronger commitment by the international community to multilateralism,” she added.
Maleeha urges greater commitment to fundamental tenets charter
The Pakistani envoy described the UN as the most sublime expression of multilateralism, and urged a greater commitment to the fundamental tenets of its Charter. The UN Charter, Ambassador Lodhi stressed, was not only an instrument of security against the horrors of war; it was also an instrument of hope against privations of injustice and oppression.
Economic distress spawns deprivations
She made a strong pitch to mainstream the right to development as a basic human right. After all, she said, economic distress spawns the deprivations that translate into disenchantment with multilateral institutions. She stressed that the UN must also be fully imbued with the democratic spirit of our times and be representative of the aspirations of all member states – small, medium and large.