ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will travel to New York to attend a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on global governance and multilateralism next week, the foreign office announced on Friday.
The meeting will be chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as China holds the council’s rotating presidency for the month. The deliberations come at a time of growing concerns about multilateralism, particularly after United States President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
During his previous term, Trump withdrew the US from key international agreements, challenged traditional alliances and took a more unilateral approach to foreign policy. His new administration’s stance on global governance and international institutions remains under close watch by world leaders.
“The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will travel to New York to participate in the high-level meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on ‘Practicing Multilateralism: Reforming and Improving Global Governance,’ scheduled to be held from 18th February 2025,” foreign office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said on Friday.
“The meeting has been convened by China under its rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of February 2025. It will be chaired by H.E. Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China,” he added.
Dar is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers from other states as well as senior UN officials on the sidelines of the event.
While it is customary for Pakistan’s top leadership, particularly its prime ministers, to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York every September, visits to participate in other meetings at the world body are relatively rare.
Pakistan was elected as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the 2025-2026 term in June 2024 with 182 out of 193 votes.
It officially began its two-year tenure on January 1, 2025.
Pakistan’s deputy PM to attend Security Council meeting on multilateralism next week
https://arab.news/65rhb
Pakistan’s deputy PM to attend Security Council meeting on multilateralism next week
- Ishaq Dar will travel to New York to participate in the gathering convened by China
- Dar will hold meetings with foreign ministers from other states as well as UN officials
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
