MANHATTAN: A senior Pakistani diplomat Friday (25th of June) told a UN panel that Pakistan had taken “robust and effective” measures to combat terrorism, especially in the area of countering financing of the scourge.
“The legislative, institutional, and operational actions were taken by Pakistan in countering terrorism, including in the area of CFT, are robust and effective,” acting Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Amir Khan, said while intervening in a high-level event on ‘Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) in post-Covid landscape”.
The event, sponsored by India and France, was part of the the “Counter Terrorism Week “.
In his remarks, the Pakistani envoy stressed the need for a comprehensive approach by — using not just CFT approach — but all measures needed to address terrorism that he described as, “the scourge of our times.”
The other steps he recommended to address were to:
Plug gaps in CFT where required and provide a capacity-building opportunities to countries on their request;
Review Countering Financing Terrorism measures that are not in compliance with international law, in particular human rights and international humanitarian laws; and,
Address root causes, especially foreign occupation; state terrorism against people possessing rights of self-determination; manifestation of Islamophobia perpetrated by violent supremacist movements, and misuse of CFT for fulfilling political agendas.
At the outset, Ambassador Aamir Khan told delegate that Pakistan, a victim of terrorism, had paid a heavy price, suffering over 50,000 casualties – soldiers and civilians – and over $120 billion in damage to the country’s economy.
“No other country has made a bigger sacrifice in fighting terrorism,” he said.
Expressing concern over the rising trends that facilitate terrorism financing, he said “the overall environment has become more-risky, exacerbated further by cross-border attacks launched by adversary states through their proxies to foment terrorism”.
Noting that the impact of COVID 19 is going to stay for long, he said, “for their counter-terrorist financing strategies to succeed, these [developing] countries will need resources, technology, and modern methodologies’ in order to address the pre-covid-19 deficiencies of the broader counter-terrorism architecture as a whole.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Pakistani envoy pointed out, has consistently drawn attention to human rights deficiencies in the global counter-terrorism architecture, and the Security Council’s assertive role in regulating responses to terrorism through the adoption of Chapter VII (enforcement) resolutions were having far-reaching “legal” and “quasi-legal” implications for the member states.
Ambassador Aamir Khan also expressed concern over “the use of digital space and new technologies to incite hatred, xenophobia, and Islamophobia designed to target especially Muslim communities including by carrying out attacks on them under the broad-daylight”.
The Counter Terrorism Week is commemorated from 24 June to 30 June 2021.

Newspakistan.tv | YouTube Channel