‘Unacceptable, ill-informed': Opposition slams UNSC for naming Pakistan vice-chair of anti-terror panel

Hindustan Times

05-06-2025

The Congress on Thursday slammed the United Nations Security Council for appointing Pakistan as the vice-chair of the anti-terror panel, calling it 'ill-informed and unacceptable'.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, 'The naming of Pakistan as the vice-chair of the 15-member United Nations Security Council's Counter Terrorism Committee and chair the Taliban Sanctions Committee for 2025 is most unfortunate, ill-informed and unacceptable.'
Apart from the two committees, Pakistan will also co-chair the Informal Working Groups on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions.
Reacting to the UNSC decision, Kharge said that the Congress, as a responsible opposition party, would urge the government to take appropriate diplomatic steps to 'de-hyphenate India and Pakistan on the global stage.'
Shiv Sena UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also criticised the UNSC's decision to hand Pakistan two key posts, saying, 'Repeat after me, UNSC is a joke!'
Pawan Khera, the media and publicity department head of Congress, alleged that this showed a 'foreign policy collapse'. He cited developments before the UNSC's decision, stating that the International Monetary Fund and World Bank had granted $1 billion and $40 billion to Pakistan post Operation Sindoor. "
'ADB gave $800 million to Pakistan on June 3, soon after Operation Sindoor. And on June 4, Pakistan gets elected as Chairman of the UNSC Taliban Sanctions Committee and Vice Chairman of the UNSC Counter Terrorism Committee. Of course, this is the sad story of our foreign policy collapse,' Khera said.
He further questioned how the international community was permitting the 'continuous legitimization sponsorship of terrorism by Pakistan".
Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the term 2025-26. The sanction committees of the 15-member Security Council makes decisions by consensus.
Kharge called on the international community to understand and support India's stand against 'terrorism emanating from Pakistan'.
'Pakistan is the perpetrator of terror. India is a victim of terror. They cannot be equated. They should not be hyphenated,' he said on X. While urging the international community to 'see merit in India's case', Kharge demanded that Pakistan be included in the FATF grey list so that its terror financing can be monitored.
'It was first included after India's diplomatic efforts, under PM Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008 and then again in 2012. It has been in the Grey List three times, the last being in 2018,' he said.
Kharge too slammed the IMF and World Bank sanctions on Pakistan, adding that it will 'only increase Pakistan's military expenditure, which its rogue Army uses to unleash terror on Indians'.
He said that seeking accountability from Pakistan was a 'necessity' not just for India, but also for the international community. Kharge also issued a reminder, saying that Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), responsible for the 9/11 attacks, were both found and eliminated in Pakistan.