Saman Hamid
It took the world two wars to realize that peace is the way forward. To contain the innate fight or flight in us 50 nations including the nuclear powers, the permanent five of the Security Council (SC) officially became signatories on October 24, 1945. The day is commemorated each year by the United Nations as UN day. With 193 members and 2 observer states today the UN is an organization with Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon’s views and actions having great global resonance, there are many Programmes successfully run by the 21 agencies that are a beacon of hope for humanity. Eleven Nobel Peace Prizes later the statistics speak firmly of progress in Unity. The question that lingers on and that attacks the very foundation of this great visionary is where the real power is vested as throughout the decades there have been numerous occasions when a lot more could have been done to avert the damage to human lives.
The biggest question that an average Pakistani has for Mr. Ban Ki Moon is the plight of Kashmir. For as long as its existence and millions of lives later the unilateral focus on the issue going as low as taking it out form its list of disputed territories in November 2010, nothing much has been done by the UN in Kahsmir. Currently PM Sharif’s UNGA address through overshadowed by the URI attacks has brought back the spotlight on the human outcry from a region ravaged by more than a hundred days of curfew with the dead being as young as 5. Right of self determination as per resolution 47 of the SC is the utmost demand of our nation. People of Pakistan throughout the years have never lost faith in the sanctity of UN and its missions; the biggest testament comes from the fact that we are one of the largest troop contributors to the UN around 170,000 of our armed forces are serving and have served in various Peace keeping missions throughout the years, some 9% of the total deployment. Throughout the years a total of 146 Pakistani peace keepers have laid their lives in war zones like’ Congo, Liberia, Bosnia, Sudan around 15 war zones in total.
The UN has significant presence as reformer in Pakistan , it hosts many programs; sponsor NGOs that are responsible for major philanthropic work in Pakistan. Our status as a third world entity necessitates the existence and success of such initiatives. UNICEF, ILO, FAO are some of the most important agencies at work here. The recently launched UNDP One program (2013-2017) is a key initiative that focuses on six key areas in Pakistan through integrated efforts, these include: equitable equal access to quality services; economic growth; resilience to crisis; strengthened governance and social cohesion; gender equality and social justice; and food and nutrition security. In all areas, the UN focuses on four normative principles: human rights, gender equality, environmental sustainability and capacity development. Some of the major achievements from last year were; deployment of polio workers in remote area to decrease polio cases by 85% since last year( 2014), 660,000 women and children reached in need of health care, ensuring access to clean water for around 2.5 million people and also ensuring cleaner environment for them, lobbying for increase in education budget and through “Every Child in School” Program 760,000 children in KP and Fata enrolled in school, legal awareness work in KP carried out benefitting around 80,000 people, IDPs returning to FATA around 16,650 people and victims of floods in Chitral helped out. A total of US $377.5 Million invested in 2015 alone under the umbrella of UNDP One program alone and the results have been encouraging.
This year is all about sustainable development; Pakistan was one of the first countries to adopt UN’s goals. The 17 goals are aimed at driving the world to a healthy and safe planet while ensuring economic prosperity and its equitable distribution it is safe to say that it is more of a vision. The goals are; no poverty, zero hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, gender equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, Peace, justice and strong institutions, Partnerships for the Goals. The biggest achievement so far for the UN in terms of attainment of this vision is the Paris Accord and its implementation in November this year. A world embroiled in conflict seeking economic gains tends to look anywhere but itself in the current times. Ideologies empower words and actions remain astray. People of Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Rawanda and countless more look towards the UN to take action, the agencies remain hard at work but the core remains unresolved and the power remains somewhere else. As conflicts and proxy wars brew on the global stage siding with one nation and or protest on a assembly seem inadequate and UN needs to realize this, their Charter says all the right things yet war lingers on and spreads in the form of conflict as time progresses the roots need to be dug if ideological goals and vision are to reach realization. The Pakistani nation is fully aware that without commitment and sacrifice nothing can be attained hence UN and its programs have been fully accommodated by our establishment and the positive image that they carry in the minds of people are evident by the support they get our Peacekeepers are willing to go anywhere in the world.
