ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: Pakistan will propose the setting up of a high-level expert group at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit this week to reform the 57-member pan-Islamic body, sources told Dawn.

“Pakistan will propose at the summit that an expert group be established to reform and restructure the organisation,” a senior official told Dawn on Monday. “The objective is to make the OIC a dynamic, credible and forward-looking body.”

The 10th OIC summit will be held in Malaysia’s new administrative capital Putrajaya on Oct 16-17. President Pervez Musharraf will leave for Putrajaya on Tuesday (today) to lead the Pakistani delegation.

Pakistan has prepared vigorously for the upcoming summit. Senior foreign office professionals, who have been associated with the OIC and have experience in multilateral diplomacy, were tasked to make suggestions to invigorate the body.

President Pervez Musharraf, who has been taking personal interest in this exercise, believes that given Pakistan’s geo-strategic position it is uniquely poised to show the way forward to the Muslim ummah.

Pakistan will be presenting before the conference President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s concept of ‘enlightened moderation’, which he emphatically articulated in his address at the opening session of the UN General Assembly last month.

The fact that Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the Islamic world, it has a seat in the UN Security Council and it is a frontline state in the international war against terrorism, also gives it a special standing in the pan-Islamic world that looks up to it for counsel and leadership

Talking to several Pakistani officials involved in the OIC process it transpired that Pakistan will push for increasing visibility of the Islamic body through effective articulation of the concerns of the Muslims. Also, it will advocate setting of new policy directions to promote economic, scientific and social development in the Muslim world. Focus on poverty alleviation and increase in trade and economic cooperation among the member states countries will also be stressed.

Pakistan will emphasize the need to use the institutional platform of OIC to take a unified stand on challenges facing the Muslim world, particularly to counter effectively the attempt to isolate and demonize the Muslim world in the aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks on the US, officials said. “We want to make the OIC a credible interlocutor with the UN, the US, and the West,” a bureaucrat remarked.