Pakistan celebrates International Day of UN peacekeepers
Islamabad: Pakistan Saturday joined the international community in celebrating the “International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.”
As one of the top troop-contributing countries, Pakistan deeply values the vital role played by “blue helmets” in maintaining security and stability in many conflict-ridden areas around the world.
“We salute the services and sacrifices rendered by UN peacekeepers and reiterate our commitment to continue working with the United Nations for advancing the shared ideals of peace, stability and cooperation,” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement.
Pakistan is proud of its long-standing and consistent contributions to UN peacekeeping spanning over six decades. Since 1960, over 200,000 of our servicemen have served with honour and valour in 46 UN missions in 26 countries in almost all continents of the world, the statement said.
Through their professionalism and dedication, our peacekeepers have always distinguished themselves in every mission where they have participated. One hundred and fifty-seven of our bravest peacekeepers have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty for the cause of international peace and security, the statement said.
Pakistan has also led the way in deputing female peacekeepers in record time. In 2019, Pakistan met the 15 percent benchmark set by the UN Secretariat in the staff/officers category. A team of our officers is presently serving as the first all-female group from Pakistan in a UN peacekeeping mission, deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing a range of resources to the region including psychologists, stress counsellors, vocational training officers, gender advisors, doctors, nurses, operations officers, information officers, and logistics officers.
Our contribution to peacekeeping on the ground has been complemented by our active engagement at the level of policy formulation in various UN bodies. Pakistan brings a unique perspective to peacekeeping, not only as a leading troop contributing country, but also as the host to one of the oldest peacekeeping missions in the world – the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).
On this Day, “we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that peacekeeping remains an effective mechanism for maintaining peace, security and stability in the world,” added the statement.
