July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

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UNITED NATIONS, July 30: Calling on the international community to re-prioritize its goals in fighting terrorism, Pakistan on Tuesday sought a “legal definition of terrorism” in order to stop “its abuse by certain states who visit all kinds of hardships on innocent civilians all in the name of fighting terrorism”.

Addressing an open UN Security Council’s sanctions committee meeting, Pakistan’s acting ambassador to the United Nations, Masood Khalid, said: “Unless we control our actions by subjecting it to the limitation of a legal definition and a political commitment to addressing this problem in its entirety, it would not be possible to avoid abuse of human rights, denial of right to self determination or prevention of state terrorism.”

Noting that terrorism has become the bane of all countries alike Khalid said: “It is no longer a localized problem which could be solved through domestic actions alone. The modern manifestations of terrorism endanger peace and security of the entire world. The measures to combat this problem, should therefore, be based on international cooperation and coordination.”

At the outset of the meeting the chairman of the UN sanctions committee observed that some countries are not reporting Al Qaeda activities to the United Nations as required.