Islamabad: March 1, 2012. (PCP) A big rally was held here Thursday to demand an independent status for the United Nations and recognition of Urdu as one of the UN languages. Hundreds of homeless tenants and members of civil society gathered outside the National Press Club to take part in the rally organized by the World Minorities Alliance (WMA). Chief Patron WMA Mehboob Ullah Jan led the rally, , which later marched from National Press Club to the Parade Ground on Jinnah Avenue where a memorandum was presented to a representative of the United Nations. While addressing the rally Mehboob Ullah Jan said the United Nations had become an ineffective world body unable to implement its own Charter of Human Rights. He regretted that right to shelter as enshrine in the Constitution of Pakistan as well as the UN Charter was being denied to 50 million homeless tenants of the country. He expressed the hope that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would fulfill his promise of allotting residential plots to homeless tenants. Convener World Minorities Alliance J Salik while addressing the rally said the United Nations was not an independent organization to visit which visa of the United States was required. He regretted that the UN sat mum over US denial of visa to the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the time of his address to the UN General Assembly in 1988. He said Yasser Arafat was later given visa at the request of Egypt and not the UN. He demanded that the UN Headquarters should be located at an independent territory giving the world body powers to issue its own visa, passport, currency, and to have its own airport. J Salik said only an independent United Nations could save humanity from the horror of Third World War looming large on world horizon. If not made independent, the world body would prove as ineffective as its predecessor the League of Nations which failed to avert World War Two costing 50 million valuable lives, he observed. He regretted that UN Charter of Human Rights was being blatantly violated by many of its member countries including Pakistan, but the world body lacked authority to take any action. Addressing homeless tenants and slum attending the rally, J Salik said only an independent United Nations could help protect and procure their rights. Demanding proprietary rights for residents of J Sali9k Colony in sector G-8, he reminded Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of fulfilling his commitment he made on March 30, 2008; promising allotment of residential plots to homeless tenants in urban and rural areas. He regretted that minorities were being denied their rights in Pakistan. He said selection of minority members on 10 reserved seats in the National Assembly was violation of Article 226 of the Constitution. He said he had challenged this violation of the Constitution in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He asked the audience to pray that he wins the petition in his favor J Salik also demanded a reserved seat for minorities in the United Nations. Participants of rally were carrying in their hands red roses, flags of all UN member countries and placard inscribed with slogans in favor of their demands. Slogans included: ‘We want independent United Nations’,’ UNO should have its own visa, passport; its own currency, airport’, ’We want reserved seat for minorities in United Nations,’ We want Urdu recognized as UN language’, ’Only an independent UN can stop Third World War’, ‘Only an independent United Nations can protect minority rights’.