UNITED NATIONS, March 25: Pakistan warned on Tuesday that “fixing seats for individual countries” would defeat the objective of wider representation in the expanded UN Security Council, saying “they must be available to all the countries of the respective regions and groupings.”

Speaking at the continuing negotiations on the enlargement and democratisation of the powerful 15-member Security Council, Pakistan's UN Ambassador Abdullah Husain Haroon suggested “a system that provides for a fair rotation among all member states of that group or region should be devised.”

He said that the Security Council could be made more equitable if it was enlarged by giving more representation to geographical regions as well as regional organisations.

“In line with the new realities and looking at the work of the council, it is important to increase interaction with and to embed the role of the regional organisations in a Security Council of the future,” Haroon said.

Advocating the need for a larger Security Council, he said that in 1945 the size of the council (11) was 21.5 per cent of the total membership which was increased to 15 after its expansion in 1963, only 13 per cent of the total membership. Even to maintain its present ratio of 13 per cent, the size of the council should at least be 25. Pakistan, he added, was ready to accept a larger council.

Mr Haroon said that Pakistan supported the proposal of the African Union, which commanded wide support as it called for regional representation as opposed to individual aspirations of some countries in other regions.

Advocating the representation of regional organisations in the council, Ambassador Haroon said that many major issues on the council agenda relate to the Islamic World. The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab league thus have vital interest in the reform of the council and have clear demands for represenatation in an enlarged Security Council

The ambassador also urged the member states to devise a mechanism for ensuring representation to small and medium states constituting a vast membership of the UN.
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