Islamabad, Sept 22: Pakistan is involved in hectic lobbying here to get elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council with minister of state for foreign affairs, Inamul Haq camping at New York slated to meet the American Secretary of State Colin Powell and President, US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice in Washington this week. Haq is expected to discuss the situation at Indo-Pak borders, the campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban and the issue of illegal Pakistani immigrants detained by US authorities, the local daily dawn said in a report from New York.
Haq, who went to New York early this month along President Pervez Musharraf, stayed back to for lobbying Pakistan's election to UN Security Council. The election is to place on September 27 when five nations will be chosen to serve as rotating non-permanent members for next two years.
Expressing satisfaction with his meeting with foreign diplomats, Haq said he expected Pakistan to sail through with session and expressed confidence that Pakistan would win the seat with comfortable majority.
He hosted a dinner for envoys and heads of delegations of Latin American and African states to apprise them of the situation on the borders and raised the Kashmir issue to present Pakistan's case on it.
He also met the foreign ministers of Lebanon, Turkish republic of northern Cyprus and the republic of Cyprus and attended the G-77 ministerial meeting last week. Bureau Report