UN chief lauds Pakistan role for peace

Islamabad: United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres on Monday Pakistan is the sixth biggest country to participate in the peacekeeping mission.

Addressing a seminar held at NUST, Islamabad on Monday, Guterres while acknowledging Pakistan s efforts for peace in the world said that he is proud of Pakistan’s role in peace mission.

“It is an honour for me to address in NUST,” he said and added Pakistan is playing a very crucial role in maintaining peace in region. “More than 150,000 people from Pakistan took part in peace missions,” he said.

The UN chief went on to say that 157 personnel laid their life during peace keeping missions, adding that new technology and social media has changed the way of war. He said Pakistan army personnel are working as first commanders in peace keeping missions.

Guterres also inaugurated purpose-built Peacekeeping Training Institute and photo exhibition showing 60 years journey of Pakistan peacekeeping operations and sacrifices for global peace.

Earlier today, UNSG Antonio Guterres lauded Pakistan’s “remarkable resilience and commitment for the Afghan brothers” despite of minimal international support.

In his address to an international conference on the future of the 4.6 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan titled 40 years of Afghan Refugees Presence in Pakistan: A New Partnership for Solidarity, organised jointly by the Pakistan government and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Islamabad, Guterres affirmed that the United Nations favours repatriation of Afghan refugees.

“We have come together to recognise a remarkable story of solidarity and compassion. It is important to do so because it is a story that spans over decades,” he said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, ministers and senior officials from 20 countries, participated in the conference. “The story of Pakistan and Afghan refugees is a story of compassion to be celebrated for many reasons, one of which is that such compassion is missing from much of the world,” said the UN chief.

“For 40 years, the people of Afghanistan have faced many crises, for 40 years the people of Pakistan have responded with solidarity. This generosity now spans across decades and generations and this is the world’s largest protracted refugee situation in recorded history. “This is also a story close to my heart. In my previous life, as the UN human rights commissioner, Pakistan was a familiar destination. During most of my time at the post, Pakistan was the number one refugee-hosting nation in the world.

“For more than three out of every four years since 1979, either Pakistan or Iran have ranked as the top refugee-hosting country. And even though major conflicts have since erupted in other parts of the world and the refugee population has soared, Pakistan is still today the world’s second largest refugee hosting country in the world. “On every visit here, I have been struck by their resilience, exceptional generosity and compassion. I not only saw compassion in words but in deeds.