NEW YORK (US): President Asif Ali Zardari flew into New York Sunday night to lead Pakistan’s delegation to the 64th session of U.N. General Assembly during which world leaders will debate issues of peace and security. 

The President was received at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport by Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, the envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, and senior officials of the Pakistan Mission to the U.N. and the Consulate General in New York.
 
The 192-member assembly begins its high-level debate on Wednesday—a day after holding a summit on the critical issue of Climate Change. Eighty-six Heads of State; three Vice-Presidents, 36 Heads of Government; eight Deputy Prime Ministers, 55 Foreign Ministers, two Vice-Ministers, two Chairpersons of delegations, and two observers will take part in the session, which will be suspended in December.
 
During his stay here, the President will go through a busy schedule, attending a string of summit-level conferences and holding talks with his counterparts from around the world as also with top United States and United Nations officials besides attending a ceremony in which Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto will be posthumously honoured.

The head of U.N. commission looking into Ms Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Chile’s UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz is expected to pay a courtesy call on the President, according to official sources. The three-member commission is half through its inquiry—it is set to submit it report in December. It began it work in July.

The President’s delegation includes Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, National Reconstruction Bureau Chairman Asim Hussain, Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi and Awami National Party Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan as well as senior government official.

The President will be co-hosting with US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a summit-level meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) aimed at helping the nation tide over economic and security challenges it faces.

The September 24 meeting on the sidelines of the assembly session will mark the first anniversary of the launch of the initiative that President Zardari took in September 2008. Informed sources say some new pledges to help Pakistan overcome its current difficulties may be announced.

The invitees to the meeting include: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, European Commission, European Union, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development and World Bank.

On Thursday, UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who will attend the meeting, called for supporting President Zardari’s government as it fights terrorism. The President’s bilateral meetings will be with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodrigues, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkende, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan.

The US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will also meeting the President. Pakistan UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said that efforts were being to accommodate more heads of state/government wishing to meet the president.

The President will also attend a debate at the Clinton Global initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges. The initiative was launched by Former US President Bill Clinton launched in 2007.

President Zardari will address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept 25 and participate in a Summit-level meeting of major troop and police contributing countries being convened by the President Obama for a review of UN peacekeeping operations. With around 11,000 troops, Pakistan is one of the largest troop troop contributors, constituting 11% of the total UN Peacekeeeping force.

“We welcome the initiative of President Obama in convening a summit- level conference of troop contributing countries,” Haroon said. “We hope this conference will go a long way in creating a better understanding about the role of peacekeeping”. More than twenty heads of State/government and representatives from  India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, France, United kingdom, the United Staes, Russia and China are likely to attend the conference.

The objective of the conference is to get the input of troop contributing countries on reforms and upgradation of UN peacekeeping activities. The President will be the keynote speaker at the Fourth Global  Creative leadership Summit of Louise Blouin Foundation where Ms Bhutto along with Matti Vanhanen, a former prime minister of Finalnd, Bruce Mau, a creative Director and Dr Craig Venter, a leading Scienist known for decoding the genome of the first living organism, will be conferred awards at a ceremony to be attend by several world leaders.

Haroon said that the President had designated the environment minister to represent Pakistan at the high-level meeting on Climate Change, convened by the UN chief on Sept. 22. The secretary-general, who gives top priority to the subject, has been pushing world leaders to “seal the deal” on a greenhouse gas emissions treaty at a climate change conference later this year.

Meanwhile, the Azad Kashmir prime minister will raise the Kashmir at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to be held on margins of the assembly.