Zardari due in NY today to attend UNGA session

UNITED NATIONS - President Asif Ali Zardari arrives in New York on Sunday to lead the Pakistan delegation to the 64th session of UN General Assembly whose wide-ranging agenda includes climate change, counter-terrorism, Middle East peace process, development and non-proliferation.
Briefing Pakistani correspondents, Pakistan UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan will highlight the Kashmir issue at a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the sidelines of the assembly.
Asked whether the President will raise the decades-old dispute between India and Pakistan in his address to the 192-member assembly, he said it was under preparation.
During his stay, the President will attend a string of summit-level conferences and hold talks with his counterparts from around the world as also with top United States and United Nations officials, besides attending a ceremony in which Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will be posthumously honoured.
The Presidents delegation will include Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, National Reconstruction Bureau Chairman Asim Hussain, Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi and Awami National Party Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan as well as senior government official.
Ambassador Haroon said Friday that the Presidents programme had to be fixed in the brief period between the Eidul Fitr and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh of rich countries on Sept 24-25. The schedule is very, very tight, he said.
The President will be co-hosting with US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a summit-level meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) aimed at helping the nation tide over economic and security challenges it faces.
The Sept 24 meeting on the sidelines of the assembly session will mark the first anniversary of the launch of the initiative that President Zardari took in September 2008.
The invitees include: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, European Commission, European Union, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development and World Bank.
On Thursday, UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who will attend the meeting, called for supporting President Zardaris government as it fights terrorism.
The Presidents bilateral meetings will be with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodrigues, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkende, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayid Al Nahyan. The US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will also meet the President.
Ambassador Haroon said efforts were being made to accommodate more heads of state/government wishing to meet the President.
The President will also attend a debate at the Clinton Global initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges. The initiative was launched by former US president Bill Clinton in 2007.
President Zardari will address the UN General Assembly on Sept 25 and participate in a summit-level meeting of major troop and police contributing countries being convened by the President Obama for a review of UN peacekeeping operations.
With around 11,000 troops, Pakistan is one of the largest troop contributors, constituting 11 per cent of the total UN peacekeeeping force.
We welcome the initiative of President Obama in convening a summit-level conference of troop contributing countries, Haroon said. We hope this conference will go a long way in creating a better understanding about the role of peacekeeping.
More than 20 heads of state/government and representatives from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, France, United Kingdom, United States, Russia and China are likely to attend the conference.
The objective of the conference is to get the input of troop contributing countries on reforms and upgradation of UN peacekeeping activities.
The President will be the keynote speaker at the Fourth Global Creative leadership summit of Louise Blouin Foundation where Ms Bhutto along with Matti Vanhanen, a former prime minister of Finland, Bruce Mau, a creative director and Dr Craig Venter, a leading Scientist known for decoding the genome of the first living organism, will be conferred awards at a ceremony to be attend by several world leaders.
Haroon said that the President had designated the Environment Minister to represent Pakistan at the high-level meeting on climate change, convened by the UN chief on Sept 22.
The secretary-general, who gives top priority to the subject, has been pushing world leaders to seal the deal on a greenhouse gas emissions treaty at a climate change conference later this year.