Security Council: Pakistan lobbying for UNSC seat

NEW YORK: Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are competing for the non-permanent Asia seat at the United Nations Security Council, currently occupied by Lebanon under an unwritten rule which has an Arab nation rotate in and out of the council to ensure representation.

There are five rotating Security Council seats in play.

Kyrgyzstan, the impoverished former Soviet state boasts Central Asia’s first female president and is unique in having both Russian and American military bases on its territory.

Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are lobbying for support among the 193-member UN General Assembly, due to elect five new Security Council members for a two-year term starting January 2012 on October 21.

“Pakistan is one of biggest contributors to UN peacekeeping, but has gotten in deeper and deeper distemper with a number of other countries,” Jeff Laurenti, a UN analyst said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2011.