Pakistan joins the UN Security Council on Wednesday subtly changing the balance in the world organisation's highest decision-making body and getting a virtual veto power over sanctioning terrorists it harbours.
Elected in June as a non-permanent member, it will replace Japan for a two-year term on one of the two seats for Asia Pacific countries in the Council.
Now Islamabad will not have to rely on Beijing to protect its terrorists like the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Sajid Mir, at the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which designates individuals and groups associated with those two organisations as terrorists and imposes sanctions.
Though it holds no veto over decisions made by the Council, there is a virtual veto wielded by non-permanent members in the sanctions committees for terrorism because they do sit by consensus under accepted norms.
The virtual veto conceded under the consensus procedure has come under attack, with New Zealand, a former chairman of the Islamic State-al-Qaeda sanctions panel, having termed it "the single biggest inhibitor to Committee effectiveness".
India has termed the functioning of the sanctions committees as "subterranean" based on "obscure practices" without a legal basis and demanded openness so that the logic of the decisions and how these decisions are taken is unveiled.
Pakistan also gets an opportunity at the Council to publicize its campaign on Kashmir, an issue it constantly brings up irrespective of the topic under discussion, unleashing virulent attacks against India.
However, this will be more of a continuing publicity stunt because it has been a voice in the wilderness that could not get any other country to join in, despite trying to link Kashmir to the Palestine problem.
When Pakistan takes the presidency of the Council in July, it can hold at least two of what are called Signature Events on topics of its choice with high-level participation, both its own and invitees.
Even if it does not make it an "anti-India" show directly, it can take a topic that it can manipulate for propaganda on India and Kashmir.
With Japan retiring, there is a subtle change in the balance at the polarised Council where a triumvirate of China, Russia and Pakistan will emerge on many issues.
The other Asian member is South Korea, which like Japan, is pro-Western.
In the General Assembly, Pakistan has tracked China's voting on many issues, especially Ukraine when it joined Beijing in voting on a resolution naming Russia as the aggressor, while generally abstaining.
On Palestine, Pakistan has been a vocal supporter of its cause and can be expected to raise the decibel in the Council, where it can go head-to-head with the US, which will redouble its backing for Israel under President-elect Donald Trump who has said hardliner Elise Stefanik will be his nominee to be the permanent representative.
Islamabad straddles a dichotomy on terrorism -- while backing or deploying terrorists against India, it denounces terrorism directed against it by groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that it says are based in Afghanistan.
It can be expected to denounce what it describes as Afghanistan's role in terrorism and try to get groups it says target it sanctioned.
The Asia Pacific group rotates its nominees for the Council, which are chosen through consensus.
The 53 members of the group range from tiny Nauru in the east to Cyprus at the edge of Europe on the West.
After intensive lobbying, Islamabad won over around 20 countries as different as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Singapore and the group approved it in 2023.
Pakistan secured 182 ballots in the 193-member General Assembly for its eighth rotation on the Council.\
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