United Nations Security Council. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Pakistan will chair the Taliban Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2025 and serve as vice-chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the 15-nation U.N. body.

According to a list of chairs of the subsidiary bodies of the UNSC, Denmark will chair the 1267 ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UNSC, while Russia and Sierra Leone will be vice-chairs for 2025.

Algeria will chair the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee, while France, Pakistan and Russia will be vice-chairs.

Pakistan will chair the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee that imposes an assets freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo on individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with the Taliban in constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan. Guyana and Russia will be vice-chairs of the Taliban Sanctions Committee.

Pakistan will also be co-chair of the Informal Working Groups on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions and on the General UNSC Sanctions Issues.

Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the 15-nation Security Council for the 2025-26 term. The sanctions committees of the Council comprise all 15 members of the Security Council and make its decisions by consensus.

India was chair of the UNSC Counter-terrorism Committee for 2022 during its 2021-22 tenure in the Council as a non-permanent member. India has consistently reminded the international community that Pakistan is host to the world’s largest number of U.N.-proscribed terrorists and entities.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s Abbottabad for years and was killed in an operation by the U.S. Navy Seals in May 2011. China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. are the five permanent members of the UNSC while Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Somalia are currently in the Council as non-permanent members.

In elections held on Tuesday (June 3, 2025), five new non-permanent members of the UNSC were chosen by secret ballot for a 2-year term starting on January 1, 2026, until December 31, 2027. These are Bahrain, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Latvia and Colombia.