Pakistan's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Masood Khan has been elected the President Designate of the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which will be held in Geneva from November 20 to December 8, 2006, an official statement said. This is for the first time that Pakistan has been given this responsibility by the international community. Before accepting this position, Ambassador Khan, in his capacity of the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Review Conference, said that using diseases as weapons of mass destruction would be repugnant to the conscience of mankind. He told the 155 states parties of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention that the international community should take strong, coordinated action to ensure that the deliberate use or disease did not become a living night for mankind. “The rapid advances in the life sciences, and the worldwide growth of the biotechnology industry, only add to the urgency of this task”, Khan said.
