Pakistan urges UN to protect counter-terrorism machinery from politicization

UNITED NATIONS: Expressing fears over political use of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan has told the United Nations that politicization of its affiliated counter-terrorism machinery would only compromise the integrity of the system.

Ambassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council that it was important that current structures like FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and the 1267 Sanctions regimes are not used as political tools by some to advance their geopolitical goals.

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The Pakistani envoy was speaking in a debate on “Preventing and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.” She said Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism sponsored by external stakeholders but this only reinforced its will to fight against the menace.

“There is also a need to make these institutions more inclusive of the wider membership in their decision-making processes,” she added.

In her remarks, Ambassador Lodhi underscored the need for a holistic approach to combat and defeat terrorism and the need for international collaboration to achieve the shared objective.
She pointed out several gaps that existed in the international community’s counter-terrorism strategy, one being the lack of attention given to issues of foreign intervention, foreign occupation, the continued denial of the right to self-determination to people living under foreign occupation and violations of international law and the UN Charter.

The envoy asserted that despite being obvious causative factors, these are ignored or cast aside.

She said that the international community agrees that continued and persistent violations of human rights contribute to violent extremism.