|
|
| 22 May 2004 | Saturday | 02 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
C'wealth to discuss Pakistan's return
LONDON, May 21: Foreign ministers and officials from nine Commonwealth nations converged here on Friday for a two-day meeting that could see Pakistan back inside the 53-nation club after remaining out of it for five years.
The Commonwealth's Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) was to discuss readmitting the world's second largest Muslim country, after its membership was suspended over the military take over in October 1999.
The group was to begin its work on Friday over dinner, then continue its discussions on Saturday, with an announcement expected later in the day, diplomats involved in the meeting told AFP.
The CMAG brings together foreign ministers of the Bahamas, Canada, India, Lesotho, Malta, Nigeria, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, though some were being represented at the London meeting by senior diplomats.
It rejected Pakistan's request for readmission at its last meeting in New York in September, three months before the most recent Commonwealth summit in Nigeria's capital Abuja.
Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Maleeha Lodhi, said it would be a blow to the Commonwealth's credibility if it failed to recognise progress made by Pakistan since the military coup.
"We feel Pakistan has met the benchmark set by CMAG," said Ms Lodhi on BBC radio. "It is for the Commonwealth to recognise reality and to be in sync and in step with what the rest of the world acknowledges, which is Pakistan's democratic progress."
She added: "Pakistani democracy is good enough for the EU and the United Nations. I can't understand why it is not good enough for the Commonwealth." Islamabad's hopes that it would be readmitted after parliamentary polls in October 2002 have so far been dashed, with Commonwealth members citing democracy concerns and opposition complaints about Gen Musharraf's unelected presidency and sweeping powers.
In an interview last March, Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon said Pakistan had made a significant progress towards democratic rule, clearing the way for its possible return to the Commonwealth.
He said a scandal involving the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea by a top nuclear weapons scientist was unlikely to be a key issue in deliberations over its readmission.
Britain favours Pakistan's readmission, not least because of its geopolitical position on the front line of the US-led "war on terror" focused on Al Qaeda network. -AFP
|
|