A vote of confidence

We are getting good news one after another. Recently, the British Airways has resumed flights to Pakistan. And now the United Nations has restored Pakistan’s status as a ‘family station’ allowing UN personnel to travel with their families to the country and stay here. After the bombing of a luxury hotel in Islamabad in 2008, the UN had declared its office in the capital a non-family duty station because of security concerns. Welcoming the decision, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has rightly said that it will help Pakistan promote international trade and tourism. With the liberalisation facility of visas, increasingly more people will visit Pakistan for business and tourism.

A letter from the office of the International Civil Service Commission of the UN notified Pakistan’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, about the decision. The letter said the UN was discontinuing the non-family status of Pakistan with effect from June 14, 2019. It said the decision had been taken after an evaluation of the security situation in Islamabad and on the recommendation made by the under-secretary general of the UN Department of Security and Safety.

The UN decision is an acknowledgement that Pakistan has done a lot to improve its security situation. The foreign minister rightly termed the UN decision the defeat of terrorism on our soil. He said the restoration of UN ‘family station’ status is a vote of confidence for Pakistan. He praised the security agencies and the Foreign Office for yet another achievement. Now we all can say with confidence that we have turned the tables on the terrorists who aimed to bring a bad name to Pakistan. Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal lauded the efforts of the ministry of foreign affairs and of the security agencies in this regard and said that the classification was a rightful acknowledgment of the turnaround in the security situation in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2019.

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