Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi has said that sanctions regimes should not be used by some as political tools to advance geo-political goals.

Taking part in a debate in UN Security Council, she said politicization of the UN’s counter-terrorism machinery would only compromise the integrity of the system.

The Pakistani envoy said there is also a need to make these institutions more inclusive of the wider membership in their decision-making processes.

Maleeha Lodhi said yet killings continue in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine and brutalization and oppression of people struggling for their legitimate right to self-determination constitutes state terrorism.

She said this too should be the focus of international attention.