June 13, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 12: The United Nations System in Pakistan has decided to relocate its offices situated in different parts of the federal capital at Diplomatic Enclave because of security concerns, sources said.

With security assessment at Level-2 (alert level), the UN has also temporarily shut down its offices in the capital till Monday.

The Foreign Office had last week encouraged the foreign missions in the capital to move to the Diplomatic Enclave and the Capital Development Authority had also announced extension of the existing enclave to accommodate all the missions.

There are 18 UN agencies working in a range of development, emergency and environmental areas, which have their country offices in the capital. Some of the agencies are based at the UN House, while the remaining have their separate offices, almost all of which are located in the upscale residential areas.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is the only agency having a purpose built office at the Diplomatic Enclave.

The UN had been allotted a piece of land by the Capital Development Authority almost a decade ago for construction of the UN House at Diplomatic Enclave, however successive resident coordinators had preferred to maintain offices in the city.

Only last year, the UN had shifted the UN House at a residential area from Pak-Saudi Tower, a move that sparked public criticism.

Millions of rupees were spent by the UN on the renovation of the rented premises. The ill-advised move was undertaken without consultation with the national staff and the government and in disregard of the local laws.

The decision to relocate the offices at the Diplomatic Enclave has been triggered by the blast at the Danish embassy earlier this month, in which one of the project offices of the UN was also badly damaged.

Sources in the UN say the relocation will be done at the earliest and that there was a possibility that the UN agencies may start working in pre-fabricated structures at the site, while the five-storied complex comes up.