UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20: Pakistan chided the UN Security Council on Wednesday for releasing a report on children in armed conflict which it said deviated from the given mandate and, therefore, could not be accorded legitimacy.

Pakistan’s deputy UN ambassador Raza Bashir Tarar told the 15-member council that Pakistan was not on the council’s agenda and allegations relating to armed groups associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the report were “unwarranted and completely misleading”.

“This not only misrepresents Pakistan’s law-enforcement and counter-terrorism measures but also serves to accord undeserved respectability to terrorists and criminals,” he said.

The report was submitted to the council which adopted a resolution on the report by a vote of 11 in favour, none against, with four abstentions—Pakistan, China, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on children, according to Pakistan’s delegate, contained some ‘unwarranted’ references to the situation in the country.

The abstaining states were of the opinion that the report had exceeded the mandate which was limited to covering the plight of children in armed conflicts.

China’s Ambassador Li Baodong called for more international support for Pakistan to fight terrorism “rather than creating difficulties and obstacles”. He insisted that the resolution could not be interpreted “to equalise the incidents of terrorist attacks in Pakistan to armed conflict”, a view echoed by Russia and Azerbaijan.

The dissenting members accused the report’s supporters of trying to expand the naming and shaming list to all countries and not sticking to conflicts that the Security Council was dealing with, which way its mandate.

Pakistan also protested that the report included situations that were not conflicts but acts by terrorists and criminals.

The resolution calls on member states to bring those responsible for such violations to justice, either through national or international judicial systems.

The Security Council also reiterated its readiness to adopt “targeted and graduated measures” — a code phrase for sanctions — against persistent perpetrators.