Pakistan asks UN to deal with root causes of terror

• Maleeha asks world body not to delink terror from its political context

Pakistan Ambassador to UN Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said that her country has shown the will, capacity and resilience in combating terrorism and that Pakistan’s campaign has now entered its most intense phase.

Speaking in an informal meeting of the General Assembly on the UN’s Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, she said that Pakistan has been the principal victim of terrorism, having lost tens of thousands of lives. “But this has only strengthened our resolve to continue our campaign until the last terrorist is eliminated from our soil,” she said.

Pakistan’s statement came after UN Secretary General António Guterres unveiled his suggestions for a new UN Counter Terrorism architecture. This envisages setting up a new office for the counter terrorism headed by an undersecretary general to lead the world body’s efforts to counter terrorism.

The UN chief opened the informal meeting by describing it as a first step towards consulting member states about his proposal. “We will only be fighting its symptoms without addressing the underlying and root causes of terrorism,” Maleeha told the meeting of the 193-member body. She said that Pakistan has always advocated that protracted unresolved conflicts, un-lawful use of force, aggression, foreign occupation, denial of the right to self-determination and political and economic injustice, as well as political marginalisation and alienation contribute to the spread of terrorism.

“Therefore, it is important not to delink terrorism from its political context,” she said. “As we deliberate on reforming the counter-terrorism architecture, we also have to take into account initiatives being taken in the wider reform of peace and security architecture while emphatically making the case for maintaining links between any new office on counter terrorism and the UN’s Department of Political Affairs,” she said.

The Pakistani envoy said that while the UN’s global counter-terrorism strategy remains the most comprehensive document to assist member states in the elimination of terrorism, ‘it remains the sole responsibility of the member states to implement it. In this regard, she said that Pakistan believes that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of any member states remains fundamental, indeed sacrosanct.

Ambassador Maleeha said that her delegation would consider with an open mind all viable options for putting in place the new counterterrorism architecture with a view to agreeing on the best solution. She said that Pakistan would work with the UN and all member states to improve coherence and cooperation of the organisational set up on counterterrorism.