May 20, 2002	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 19: Former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has appreciated the Commonwealth’s statement describing the referendum as ‘deviation from democracy’.

The Commonwealth ministers’ meeting on Friday rejected Gen Pervez Musharraf’s victory in the April 30 referendum.

A statement issued by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, meeting in Kasane, Botswana, termed Musharraf’s referendum as “deviation from the roadmap to democracy”.

“The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group expressed concern that certain conditions relating to the conduct of the referendum were not in keeping with Commonwealth’s best electoral practice,” the CMAG statement added.

British prime minister Tony Blair was also quoted by news agencies as saying that Pakistan would continue to remain outside the councils of the Commonwealth till democracy was restored there.

In a statement issued here on Sunday the former premier said that by showing solidarity with the democratic aspirations of the people of Pakistan the Commonwealth had defended freedoms and human dignity.

“The international community could follow the lead of the Commonwealth in supporting transparent elections with a key role given to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for its conduct”. She said that Pakistan was a key nation for regional stability and global security. “Political change was necessary to ensure that threats to peace and the rise of militancy witnessed since the overthrow of democracy in 1966 is reversed”.