ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: Pakistan’s continued suspension from the Commonwealth will translate into persisting denial of a number of facilities available to member countries.

As a consequence of the suspension, Pakistan no longer has access to Commonwealth Technical Assistance. All assistance except for the Election Commission of Pakistan has been cancelled. This assistance is provided under the multilateral Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) established by the Commonwealth heads of government in 1971. The CFTC, administered by the Commonwealth secretariat in London, is the primary means by which the grouping supports economic and social development and the alleviation of poverty in member countries.

Recruitment of Pakistani experts and consultants for CFTC assignments has been frozen. Also, fresh appointment of Pakistanis in the Commonwealth secretariat has stopped.

Also, Pakistani students have been deprived of a number of scholarships offered annually by the UK, Australia and Canada.

The 54-nation Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group at its 22nd meeting in New York last week upheld the suspension of Pakistan’s membership noting that: “Parliament had remained deadlocked over the Legal Framework Order which was an obstacle to Pakistan’s full return to democracy.”

Pakistan was suspended from decision-making councils of the Commonwealth following the October 1999 military coup that sent Mian Nawaz Sharif’s democratically elected government packing.

Since 1995, when the Millbrook Commonwealth Programme on the Harare Declaration was issued, where a member country is deemed to be in violation of the Harare principles or where there is an unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected government, the member concerned may be suspended from all Commonwealth meetings and technical assistance pending the restoration of democracy. In extreme cases, heads of government may agree to suspend or even expel such a country from the grouping.