Pakistan to chair UNSC Sanctions Committee enforcing travel ban, asset freeze on Taliban-linked entities

Pakistan is set to chair the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban Sanctions Committee in 2025 and will also serve as vice-chair of the 15-member body’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. Pakistan will chair the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee in 2025, which enforces measures such as asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes on individuals and entities linked to the Taliban that threaten Afghanistan’s peace, stability, and security.

Guyana and Russia will serve as the committee’s vice-chairs.

According to a list of chairs of the subsidiary bodies of the UN Security Council, Denmark will chair the 1267 ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council, 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 is a non-permanent member of the 15-nation UN Security Council for the 2025–26 term.

Apart from chairing the Taliban Sanctions Committee of UNSC, Pakistan will also be co-chair of the Informal Working Groups on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions and on the General UNSC Sanctions Issues.

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 UN-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 US Navy Seals in May 2011. 

China, France, Russia, the UK and the US are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council 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 Tuesday, five new non-permanent Members of the UN Security Council were 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.

(With agency inputs)