Pakistani PM’s address on Sept. 26 as UNGA meets with focus on Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan

In this file photo, taken on September 23, 2022, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at UN headquarters in New York City. (AFP/File)

• Debate of the 193-member Assembly’s 79th session will take place from September 24-30
• PM Sharif last addressed UNGA after devastating floods in 2022 killed at least 1,700 people

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to address the United Nations General Assembly’s annual General Debate on September 26, according to a provisional list of speakers released by the UN this week as world leaders meet amid conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan. 
Pakistan has repeatedly used the UN platform to raise its voice on key global and regional issues like Islamophobia, Kashmir, Palestine, terrorism and climate change. 
“The Assembly’s 79th session, which actually opens on September 10, will be meeting amid heightening tensions in the world with several active conflicts, including in Palestine, Ukraine and the Sudan,” state-run APP reported. 
“It will be the second time Prime Minister Sharif will deliver a speech to the General Assembly — the UN’s main policy-making organ — he last addressed it in 2022,” APP added, saying over 130 world leaders had so far confirmed their participation in the debate, quoting Monica Greylay, the spokesperson for the UN General Assembly.
“They will be addressing international peace and security issues. The provisional list of speakers issued by the UN is not final; the UN regularly updates it in the weeks leading up to the session to account for any changes in attendance, schedules, and speaking slots of leaders, ministers and ambassadors.”
Among key issues that will come up at UNGA is Russia’s war on Ukraine as well as the conflict in Gaza, where a military campaign launched by Israel last October has killed over 40,000 Palestinians. The power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces which erupted into a large-scale conflict in April 2023 and has been driving humanitarian needs in the country ever since will also likely come under discussion. Conservative estimates say the Sudan conflict has killed at least 15,500 people, while some estimates are as high as 150,000.
The last time Sharif delivered a speech to the UNGA was in 2022 in the aftermath of climate-induced floods that killed more than 1,700 people across the country.