Pakistan has once again blocked consensus on a plan of work at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva. The plan of work lays out what the CD can negotiate each year.

The current President of the CD had proposed that the plan of work for this year include establishing:

"a working group under agenda item 1 entitled "Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament" to deal with elements of a multilateral treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices on the basis of the document CD/1299 of 24 March 1995 laying out and the mandate contained therein, while. dealing with all related matters. ... Pursuant to its mandate, the working group shall take into consideration, without prejudice, all relevant views and proposals past, present and future. "

CD/1299 is the Shannon Mandate agreed in 1995 that lays out the terms for negotiations on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices - also known as the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) . It is named after Ambassador Gerald E. Shannon of Canada who managed the process whereby the CD arrived at a consensus on the terms for talks on an FMCT. Pakistan has been blocking CD talk on an FMCT since 2009, when it briefly agreed for the first time in 10 years to a program of work that included a working group tasked with negotiating an FMCT on the basis of the Shannon mandate. For an analysis of Pakisan's position, see the April 2011 article in Arms Control Today.