Daily Times

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan called for arrangements to ensure swift deployment of additional Pakistani army units and equipment that a special United Nations team had selected to serve in the UN peacekeeping missions around the world, while reaffirming its commitment to the world body’s flagship activity, on Friday.

“We strongly recommend that the UN support mechanism may now be geared up for speedy deployment of selected units to UN missions,” Pakistani Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said during a follow-up meeting of the recent Leaders Summit on Peacekeeping.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, as a co-host of the Leaders Summit on the Peacekeeping, held last September, had announced various additional pledges, which included an Infantry Battalion; Transport, Engineering and Signal companies; more utility helicopters; and a Level-II and a Level-III Hospital for deployment in future UN peacekeeping missions. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Ambassador Lodhi noted, had also just concluded a successful visit to Pakistan, during which it had assessed the readiness of the troops for the deployment and their conformity to the pledges the country’s leadership had made. “This is our collective endeavour and we all need to take steps to make it a success,” the Pakistani envoy told delegates.

She went on to say, “Pakistan’s commitment to UN Peacekeeping remains strong, consistent and unstinting.We continue to figure among the world’s top troop contributors. Our peacekeepers have an exemplary track record of delivering in testing circumstances and in implementing and fulfilling demanding mandates with professionalism and distinction.”

More than 7,000 Pakistani uniformed personnel are already serving in as many as seven peacekeeping missions, making the country one of the biggest contributors to both troops and police forces. Ambassador Lodhi also backed the UK initiative for holding a ministerial-level meeting in London in September to follow up on the pledges, which were made at the Leaders Summit. She also said that Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Muhammad Khwaja Asif, would attend it.

“Pakistan’s continued commitment and resolve to live up to our responsibility as a major troop contributor and to fulfil our obligations in this regard. We stand ready to deliver on the pledges made at the Leaders Summit,” she added.

Earlier this month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had also lauded Pakistani peacekeepers for their spectacular service under the UN flag in hot spots around the world, also saying that they had made some valuable contribution in maintaining peace as well as helping communities suffering from war. “For well over half a century, Pakistani peacekeeping troops have seen injustice in far off places and (acted as the) force for a better world,” he had said at a reception hosted by Ambassador Lodhi to commemorate the Pakistani Peacekeepers Day.