By NNN-IRNA,
Islamabad : The United Nations has said it is temporarily pulling some of its international staff from Pakistan over security concerns, a spokesman for the UN in Islamabad said on Thursday.
Ishrat Rizvi said that the UN will review the situation and will bring the staff after the security is improved.
On Oct. 5, a suicide attack on the UN World Food Program office in Islamabad had killed five UN workers, bringing the organization’s total death toll in Pakistan to 11 in 2009.
The attack had prompted the UN to begin reviewing its security arrangements, the UN official said.
The UN officials said only “non-essential” staff are being moved out and the withdrawal would not affect operations to aid people displaced by fighting between the security forces and the militants in the country’s northwest.
The UN spokesperson said that main priority is to continue all critical operations and to ensure that all staff in Pakistan can operate in a safe manner.
She said the UN is in the process of relocating a limited number of international staff for an interim period, adding that many of them will continue to support operations in Pakistan from other locations.
Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman said Islamabad had asked the UN to reconsider its decision.
He said that security has improved since the October attack on the WFP office.
He added Pakistan has been assured at the highest levels in New York that the UN would revisit the plan.
The UN sources say that there are around 2,500 Pakistanis who work for the UN and they are not be affected by the decision.