Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for addressing many crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, rising conflicts and climate change, worsening the existing disparities among world nations.
Pakistan’s deputy permanent envoy to the UN, Ambassador Aamir Khan said: “the worsening disparities have accelerated since the global financial crisis at the end of the first decade of this century.”
Debate on disparities at UN
The Pakistani envoy said during the general debate that the Sustainable Development Goal’s main component to alleviate inequities had not only failed but also regressed in recent years.
Widening disparities between poor and rich countries
He said that the disparities between poor and rich countries, both between and within countries, were growing and widening despite unprecedented global gains. “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poor.”
Emphasizing that only 26 people own half the world’s wealth, he said the poly-crises triggered by rising geopolitical tensions, rising geopolitical tensions, and the Cocid-19 pandemic have only worsened those existing vulnerabilities and inequalities.
He noted: “Now the pandemic of inequalities is playing havoc with the lives of common people.”
He said that while wealthier countries have invested over $17 trillion to strengthen their economies, developing nations cannot come up with even a tiny portion of the $4.1 trillion needed to recover and meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
Aamir Khan urged greater global cooperation and underlined the importance of giving developing nations the resources they need to emerge from crises and fulfill the SDGs.
“In these trying circumstances, I seek solidarity in food, finance, and fuel.”
He gave an overview of Pakistan’s employment figures while pointing out that the government is attempting to increase the number of jobs available to young people by fostering the private sector, encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing exports, and enhancing access to Internet services.
He emphasized that Pakistan was still reeling under the most enormous and catastrophic flooding in its history.
The Pakistani envoy suggested, among other things, that wealthy nations immediately fulfill their commitment to the 0.7 per cent ODA (official development assistance) target, redistribute the $650 billion in SDRs and allocate new SDRs, provide concessional financing from multilateral organizations and development banks, and relieve and restructure debt.
