Washington, Sept 18: Pakistan's efforts to scuttle India’s bid to get a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council reportedly suffered a serious setback when the UN General Assembly recently decided to conduct ‘inter-governmental negotiations’ on reforming the Security Council, instead of leaving the matter to the Open-ended Working Group.

In the Working Group, Pakistan, Italy and Argentina have been effectively blocking the induction of any new permanent members since 2005, when India, Brazil, Germany and Japan made an official bid for permanent membership of the UN.

The bid of the “Group of Four” was challenged by a group led by Pakistan and Italy, which opposed permanent seat for any additional permanent members and sought the Security Council’s expansion in the non-permanent category.

The UN General Assembly is likely to take up the question of expansion before February 2009 during its 63rd session, which opened on Tuesday. The three members of the Working Group kept a tight rein on the middle and small-sized member nations in the Working Group, and effectively checkmated efforts by India, Germany, Japan, Brazil and the US to create new permanent members.

The Group, often called as “Coffee Club”, also defeated all efforts to take the matter to the UN General Assembly because they lacked the necessary numbers there – because it worked on the basis of consensus in the Working Group.

The latest change comes after the retirement of Ambassador Munir Akram, a skilled UN negotiator who kept India at bay and enjoyed a formidable reputation at the UN. His replacement by highly affable, but inexperienced, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, a novice utterly unfamiliar with multilateral diplomatic negotiations, has been the topic of discussion among the UN diplomats.

Haroon rarely shows up at the UN, and has even avoided some of the meetings of the Working Group, tasked with the UN Security Council reform. (ANI)