UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has reiterated its call for reform of the Security Council to be guided by the principles of democracy and representativeness, a press release said.

Speaking in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council reform, Pakistan`s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi responded forcefully to a handful of countries which seek permanent seats for themselves.

Representatives of some of these states had argued against including the principle of democracy in a documentprepared by the co-chairs of the IGN, which identified democracy and representativeness as shared principles of the UN membership, which should be taken into consideration in reforming the Security Council.

The Pakistani envoy said that those interventions during the IGN, which objected to inclusion of these principles of democracy, left `many of us dumbfounded`. Assailing the aspirants for permanent seats in an expanded Security Council, Ms Lodhi said, `it is the first time we are hearing someone speak against the notion of democracy and representativeness in the august chambers of the United Nations`.