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Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, speaks at the UN Security Council meeting on Israel-Iran conflict on June 13, 2025. Courtesy: X@PakistanUN_NY
UNITED NATIONS:
Pakistan on Friday reaffirmed its opposition to adding new permanent members to the UN Security Council, arguing it would increase the 15-member body’s dysfunction and violate the principle of sovereign equality.
Speaking in a resumed session of the long-running Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at reforming the Security Council, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said that the demand for individual permanent membership is clearly something that runs counter to the principles of reform.
As part of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group, Ambassador Asim Ahmad said Pakistan advocates for expanding only non-permanent, elected seats to enhance democratic representation in order to ensure “REFORM FOR ALL – PRIVILEGE FOR NONE”.
Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas — the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.
Progress towards restructuring the Security Council remains blocked as G-4 countries — India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan — continue to push for permanent seats in the Council, while the Italy/Pakistan-led UfC group opposes any additional permanent members. arguing it would create “new centers of privilege”.
As a compromise, UfC has proposed a new category of members — not permanent members — with a longer duration in terms and a possibility to get re-elected.
The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States — and 10 non-permanent members elected to two-year terms.
The IGN framework is geared towards restructuring the Council to make it more representative, effective, and accountable.
In his remarks, the Pakistani envoy emphasized that the campaign for individual permanent membership cannot be a basis for reform governed by those agreed principles.
The overwhelming majority of the United Nations’ membership, he said, recognizes that permanent membership and the veto are at the core of the Council’s paralysis and inaction seen too often over the years.
