Pakistan joins UNSC as non-permanent member

United Nations, Jan 1: Pakistan on Sunday joined the UN Security Council for a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the powerful world body, which also has India among its 15-member states.

Pakistan was elected to the Security Council last October when 129 out of 193 members of the UN General Assembly voted for it during an election. Pakistan has previously served the Council in 1952-53, 1968-69, 1976-77, 1983-84, 1993-94 and 2003-04.

"It will be Pakistan's seventh time on the Council, and the fourth time its term will overlap with India, as it did in 1968, 1977 and 1984," the state-run APP news agency said. Pakistan's envoy to UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon has said his country would play a constructive role in resolving key global issues that the Council is dealing with or may come up.

"We hope to play our usual role of taking on matters which affect the underdog, so as to speak," Haroon was quoted as saying by the APP.

The Security Council has five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, from five different regions of the world.

Along with Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco and Togo have also joined the Council as non-permanent members.

PTI