News Desk |
Pakistan’s permanent envoy in the United Nations (UN) Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said that efforts are needed at the global level to curb organized crimes and terrorism.
Dr Lodhi said that the crimes are a key source in assisting the terrorist groups, adding that the international community will have to work out organized planning to counter menaces. “We need to counter the reason rather than symptoms,” she said.
She stressed that the international community should pay attention to the ongoing barbarity and state terrorism in Indian Occupied Kashmir. She made it clear that the UN institutions engaged in eliminating terrorism should not become a tool for promoting the interests of a few countries.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has also stressed for launching efforts at international level against anti-Islam bias.
Speaking at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)’s open debate on ‘Threats to International Peace and Security: Linkage between International Terrorism and Organized Crime’ debate, ambassador Lodhi said Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies have played a pivotal role in the anti-drug campaign despite their limited resources.
She pointed out that an integrated and comprehensive anti-terrorism policy has been evolved through the national action plan in Pakistan.
She explained that Pakistan has made remarkable achievements in the war on terror. “We will continue to play our role to sever the vicious link between terrorism and organized crime in our region,” Ambassador Lodhi said.
“This is critical for our own people, as well as for our neighborhood and indeed for the rest of the world,” she said, adding the crime-terrorist nexus varies across different contexts, with several common areas of confluence, including financing tools, recruiting vulnerable youth and operating in areas outside government control.
Read more: Pakistan moves UN to act against Islamophobia
“Being one of the principal victims of terrorism, Pakistan’s resolve to eliminate this scourge is clear and unwavering,” she said. She held that national institutions have been made stronger and active for preventing financing to terrorist outfits and other terror-related acts.
Pakistan Submits Six-point Plan in UN to Reduce Islamophobia, Racism
In June, Pakistan had presented a six-point mechanism in the UN against Islamophobia and hate narratives.
Dr Lodhi had presented the six-point plan in a ceremony held under the Pakistan Mission and organized by Pakistan along with Turkey, the Holy See, and the UN. The UN Under Secretary for anti-terrorism had attended the ceremony.
While addressing the ceremony, Dr Lodhi had said the mechanism will help reduce racism, Islamophobia and religious hatred, adding that the anti-Islam bias was a major example of hate narrative.
Pakistan called for new UN Strategy and Plan of Action to combat Islamophobia and hate speech.
“A particularly alarming development is the rise of Islamophobia which represents the recent manifestation of the age-old hatred that spawned anti-Semitism, racism, apartheid and many other forms of discrimination,” the ambassador said in her speech. Prime Minister Imran Khan has also stressed for launching efforts at international level against anti-Islam bias, she added.
Pakistan Moves UN to act against Islamophobia
Earlier, Pakistan called for new UN Strategy and Plan of Action to combat Islamophobia and hate speech.
While throwing its full weight behind the new UN Strategy and Plan of Action to combat hate speech, Lodhi had said that Islamophobic language was being used to secure narrow political and electoral gains in many parts of the world, including the South Asian region.
Read more: UN adopts resolution as Pakistan warns of threat to global peace from Islamophobia
“An inevitable consequence [of Islamophobic language] is to fan the flames of bigotry, intolerance, anti-Muslim hatred, and xenophobia,” Lodhi had said during a special meeting in New York.