*UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan pointed to the lack of implementation of SecurityCouncil resolutions on occupied Jammu and Kashmir as an example of the15-member body’s inability to fulfill its responsibility.*

Speaking in the General Assembly’s intergovernmental negotiations onSecurity Council reform, Pakistan’s Ambassador at the United Nations (UN),Maleeha Lodhi, said this was another compelling reason for reform of theworld body.

“Solemn promises have been broken, on not one, but several resolutions onKashmir, and undertakings reneged on”, she said in her comprehensivestatement in the two-day session that began on Thursday.

Urging reform of the Council’s working methods, Ambassador Lodhi said thatsuch moves should be aimed at enhancing the transparency, openness andinclusive decision making in the functioning of the body.

“It goes without saying”, Ambassador Lodhi stressed, “that the majority ofmember states attribute the non-transparency and exclusive nature ofworking and decision-making of the Council to its permanent members.

Referring to Pakistan’s experience, having served seven times as anon-permanent member of the Security Council, she said that elected membershad done more to reinvigorate the working methods of the world body.Therefore an expansion in the Council in the permanent category couldimperil those gains.

Stressing that the ideal of a more transparent and open Council should notbe mortgaged to the narrow interests of a few countries, Ambassador Lodhimaintained that aspirants for permanent status in the Council willnecessarily fail to prioritize collective good over individual interest.

“We know only too well that Permanent members of the Council jealouslyguard their domain. There is no reason to believe that that any newpermanent members would act otherwise”, she added.

“We, therefore, need to increase, not diminish, the ratio of non-permanentto permanent members”, she stressed.