WASHINGTON, May 4: Pakistan has urged the United Nations to play a proactive role in creating better understanding and greater goodwill among nations by building bridges between various societies and create harmony between diverse religions, cultures and regions.

Speaking at the plenary meeting of the 25th substantive session of the Committee on Information in New York this week, Pakistan’s representative Mansoor Suhail said that the Committee should accept the challenge by sending a clear message of the member states’ collective resolve.

“It can be done through the network of UN Information Centres, which carry out a whole range of information and communication activities for the United Nations and can reach out to the peoples around the globe through the media,” he added.

Mr Suhail has been association with the Committee on Information for long, which he served as its elected chairman for two years and vice chairman during 1987-1993. Pakistan’s delegate said that Pakistan had a “free press” and because of that “freedom, both print and electronic media have flourished in the country.”

“The media in developing countries is lagging behind, not because of the lack of political will, but because of the lack of resources to build up the information infrastructures,” he said.

Expressing support for various activities of the UN’s department of public information such as the media accreditation and liaison unit, website unit, Mr Suhail focussed on the importance of Urdu broadcast for hundreds of millions of people in the Asian region. He also called upon the department of public information to extend its support to the United Nations’ Correspondents Association for their Dag Hammersjold Memorial Scholarship Fund in sponsoring journalists from the developing world.

He proposed doubling the scholarships so that more journalists could be brought to the UN headquarters to report on world body’s activities during its general assembly session.

The substantive session of the committee on information comprises 99 member states and is tasked with framing recommendations for adoption by the general assembly.