PM to participate in debate on UN reforms

UNITED NATIONS—Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will arrive in New York on Wednesday on a four-day visit during which he will present to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan the report of the high-panel set up to strengthen U.N.’s operational activities.
Apart from his engagements at the U.N. on Nov. 9, the prime minister will utilize the opportunity to hold a series of meetings with leading businessmen and industrialists, foreign policy influentials, including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissigner, and academics.
Annan appointed the panel comprising 15 global leaders in February, with Aziz as one of three co-chairpersons along with Prime Ministers Luisa Dias Diogo of Mozambique and Jens Stoltenberg of Norway.
He assigned them with the task of making recommendations for fundamentally restructuring the U.N. to ensure better coherence and performance in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment.
Other noted members of the panel include Gordon Brown, the United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, president of the Republic of Chile; and Benjamin Mkapa, the former president of the United Republic of Tanzania.
At the conclusion of the 2005 World Summit, global leaders produced an outcome document that called for the study to “lay the groundwork for a fundamental restructuring of the U.N.’s operational work, complementing other major reform initiatives currently under way at the U.N.”
Briefing Pakistani newsmen on Tuesday afternoon, Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram said the report would include best options for greater systemwide efficiency and coherence in the world body’s operational activities for development.
On Nov 8, the day he arrives from Pakistan, Prime Minister Aziz will host a dinner for the co-chairs and members of the high-level panel at which they have have an exchange of views.
After transmitting the report to the U.N. Chief the following day, Prime ministers Shaukat Aziz and Stoltenberg will present to the U.N. General Assembly, currently holding its 61st session. Afterwards, the co-chairs will hold a press conference. No information is yet available about the travel plans of Prime Minister Diogo of Mozambique.
The same afternoon, Prime minister Aziz will address students of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in the neighbouring state of New Jersey.
At night, he will the chief guest at an event being held to launch the Visit-Pakistan-Year-2007 which will be followed by a cultural programme. Among others Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar will be present on the occasion as also Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UNited States Mahmud Ali Durrani.
During his stay, Aziz will be interviewed by several news organizations, including CNN, Fox, Newsweek and The New York Times.
He will leave for Halifax, Canada, on Saturday to attend the microcredit summit before returning home.—APP