KAMPALA, Nov 20: The Commonwealth’s human rights arm on Tuesday called for Pakistan’s suspension from the 53-nation bloc, saying President Pervez Musharraf had significantly undermined basic rights.

“Pakistan under Musharraf’s emergency rule has no place in the Commonwealth,” the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said in a statement.

The rights body called on Commonwealth foreign ministers, who begin a two-day meeting here on Wednesday, to decide on Pakistan’s exclusion from the organisation of mainly former British colonies.

CHRI said foreign ministers gathered in Kampala ahead of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting “must act to protect the basic values of the Commonwealth and suspend Pakistan.”

Fiji was excluded from the Commonwealth last year following a military coup, while Zimbabwe was banned in 2002.

Pakistan was previously suspended from the Commonwealth for five years following Musharraf’s 1999 coup but welcomed back into the fold on condition he took off his uniform.

—AFP