UNGA panel on SC expansion remains deadlocked

UNITED NATIONS - Ambassador Munir Akram made his last appearance as Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN in a meeting of General Assembly's panel tasked with making recommendations to turn the Security Council into a more representative and effective body at which he has led efforts to thwart repeated Indian moves to win support for increasing permanent members.

On Tuesday, the Open Ended Working Group on the Security Council Reform remained divided on reforming the 15-member Council as the Assembly 's 62nd session draws to a close.

Practically all member states agree on enlarging the membership of Council to achieve the objective of making it more effective, but they sharply differ over the category in which the expansion should take place as also other details.

Experts says that the relentless push by the Group of Four - India, Brazil, Germany and Japan - for permanent membership of the Council was responsible for blocking any progress in the negotiations in the Open Ended Working Group.

A "Uniting for Consensus" (UfC) group, headed jointly by Pakistan and Italy, firmly opposes any expansion of the permanent members on the Security Council and advocates the council's enlargement in the non-permanent category.

The UfC-proposed solution was endorsed by the assembly's 61st session as a way to move forward towards the council's restructuring.

"The best hope was generated at the 61st Session, which set out clearly the political outline that an intermediate solution was the only possible way. That outline recommended by the Facilitators excluded the most divisive issue, i.e. the ambition of some to acquire the permanent status. Regional representation was, however, not excluded in that outline," Munir Akram said.