NEW YORK, JAN 26 (DNA) – Pakistan has opposed the creation of new permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Addressing the first meeting of Intergovernmental Negotiations Framework during the seventy fifth session of the UN, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the world body Munir Akram said creation of new permanent seats will make the Security Council less representative, less effective, more divided and erode the principle of sovereign equality of states.

“The Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) remains the only credible platform for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council,” Ambassador Munir Akram said, while re-affirming that Pakistan’s strong opposition to creating new permanent members.

“Any attempts to undermine or derail the IGN process will prove counterproductive,” the Pakistani envoy said when the long-running IGN process resumed in New York on Monday.

Having failed to evoke support for their bid for permanent membership of the Council, he said that the G-4 members were trying to create the ‘fear’ that the opportunity for reform may soon be lost unless their procedural moves to short circuit the process were endorsed.

“We are prepared to breathe new life in the IGN but some states are bent upon killing the process,” Ambassador Akram said.

Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.

Despite a general agreement on enlarging the Council, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details.

The G-4 have shown no flexibility in their push for expanding the Council by 10 seats, with six additional permanent and four non-permanent members.

On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group opposes any additional permanent members, saying it would make the Council less representative, less effective and more divided and will diminish the right of the vast majority of the UN membership to serve on the Council.

On its part, UfC has proposed a new category of members not permanent members with longer duration in terms and a possibility to get re-elected.

The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States and 10 non-permanent members elected to serve for two years.

In his remarks, Ambassador Akram said that the UfC proposal to add 11 new non-permanent seats would redress the ‘deficit’ of equitable representation in the Security Council, as it accommodates the interests of all groups.

In 1945, he said, the Council represented 20% of the membership of the United Nations today, it represents 8% of the membership. In 1945, there was one non-permanent seat for 8 member states today, there is one non-permanent seat for 19 member states.

A third of the UN members have never served on the Council Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, for example, is only the second Small Island Developing State (SIDS) to ever serve on the Council, it was pointed out.

The Pakistani envoy said UfC’s proposal can accommodate the aspirations of the African Group, the SIDS, and the Arab Group, & the OIC. The G-4, he said, was unlikely to apply Africa’s regional approach to their own regions.

The consensus-based African model is anchored in the twin imperatives of ‘representation’ and ‘accountability’, he pointed out.

Pakistan and the UfC are keen to build on the progress made during IGN’s previous sessions, Ambassador Akram said, adding that it was only through dialogue and consensus that a solution, enjoying the widest agreement of member states, could be achieved.

“We are ready and willing to work with you to promote this objective,” the Pakistani envoy said. = DNA

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ISLAMABAD, JAN 26 (DNA) – Allama Iqbal Open University(AIOU) has established a facilitation desk at the main campus of the university to facilitate disable students so that they may not face any difficulty while applying for admission, degree/certificate or performing any other routine academic activity at the university.

Rana Tariq Javed, Director, Directorate of Students Affairs and Counseling Services has informed that the university has established this facilitation desk on the special directives of Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum, Vice Chancellor, AIOU.

He further added that workers from his department will provide special assistance to these people and the Directorate has provided a wheelchair in the information lobby to support them. Such facilitation desks will also be established in the regional offices of the university, he informed.

It is pertinent to mention here that university provides special financial assistance to disable people to get education from the university. In order to avail this facility, disable students are advised to contact their respective regional offices for further guidance. = DNA

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DNA

KARACHI: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has called upon the information ministry to implement recommendations and proposals agreed upon during meeting of stakeholders and information ministry on December 7, 2020.

In a letter written to the Information Secretary Shahera Shahid, the APNS Secretary General Sarmad Ali drew the attention of the Secretary towards that meeting stating it was concluded that the Ministry of Information will streamline the government advertising procedures and amend the new mechanism being implemented after April 03, 2020.

It was specifically agreed upon that the classified ads will be reverted to advertising agencies as in the past to resolve the problems being faced in billing and payment procedures. It was also agreed upon that the client departments would be allowed to select the media of their choice with the right of PID to make additions / deletions in release of advertisements

It is regretted that the agreed conclusions have not yet been notified instead a notification has been issued on January 08, 2021 wherein the procedures of Centralized Advertising Policy were reinforced whereby the government departments were strictly forbidden to suggest the media of their choice. This action has caused massive decrease in the quantum of advertisement being released to regional and medium sized newspapers

You would appreciate that in the era of decentralization and devolution, the insistence on centralization of media, would be disastrous for the growth of newspaper industry and would not only negate the democratic norms but also deprive the departments / ministries / autonomous bodies to select the media of their choice as sponsoring clients are better aware and capable of selecting the media to reach their targeted audience

The Secretary General requested the Information Secretary  to allow the client departments to select the media for their advertisements and notify the decisions taken at the stakeholders meeting of December 08, 2020.

ISLAMABAD, JAN 26 (DNA) – Speakers of a panel discussion organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here on Tuesday urged a consistent policy approach towards Kashmir by Pakistan. Speaking at the event titled ‘India under Modi’, former diplomat Amb Aziz Ahmed Khan called for a consistency of Pakistani stance on Kashmir in line with the UN Security Council resolutions.

Amb Khan was of the view that despite aggressive regional posturing by India and illegal draconian actions against the people of the India-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), Pakistan needed to stick to putting diplomatic pressure on the Indian government to resolve the dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. He further called for engaging Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora abroad and a diplomatic push on the Western capitals.

President IRS Amb Nadeem Riyaz added that Pakistan needed not only to engage governments and diaspora but also the parliaments and think-tanks of Western countries. Speaking on India under Modi, Amb Khan was of the view that while former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee represented the softer version of Hindutva, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was implementing the hardline version of it. He shared that Modi had never even expressed regret over the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat while he was the chief minister of the state, let alone apologize for it.

Further alluding towards the hardline Hindutva ideology of the current Prime Minister of India, Amb Khan shared that while Modi proudly adorned headgears of various kinds in public, he was never seen wearing a Muslim skullcap, which spoke of his prejudice towards the Muslims.

Amb Khan further stated that while the Modi-led ruling BJP was benefitting from the weaknesses of Congress as the only other national-level political party, the farmers’ protest could force it to withdraw the three controversial farm laws. He expressed his concern over the ongoing delimitation exercise in India-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK).

He was of the view that it was aimed at creating seven new constituencies in Jammu to offset the majority of Muslim constituencies in the state assembly of IOJK.

Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) expressed his concerns over the aggressive regional policy of India under Modi. He was of the view that the Indian regional policy formulation was inspired by the mandalas concept enunciated by the Indian political philosopher Chanakya by virtue of which a neighboring country had to remain an unfriendly country by definition.

He also expressed his concern over the transformation of Indian nuclear posture towards Pakistan from deterrence to what he called ‘compellence’. Jaspal was of the view that India was now strongly allied with the US and was, thus, no longer a non-aligned country.

Dr Raja Qaiser Ahmed of QAU that the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was completely unconstitutional. He shared that any change to the article had to be endorsed by the incumbent government of the state of IOJK as per the Indian Constitution. He added, however, that for repeal of the article, the Constitution prescribed its approval by the Constituent Assembly, which no longer existed.

Therefore, he argued that Article 370 could not be constitutionally abrogated. He added that the Modi government had hatched a plan to endorse the abrogation through the Assembly of IOJK once it is elected after the demographic change in the state with migration of a large number of Hindus.

This, he maintained, would provide constitutional cover to the unconstitutional move of the BJP government and until then the Supreme Court of India would keep dragging its feet on the petitions for reversing the revocation of the article.=DNA

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