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| Nida-i-Millat | Family
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Pakistan be suspended, demands CW HRs body
KAMPALA (AFP) - 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 said in a statement. The rights body called on Commonwealth foreign ministers, who begin a two-day meeting in Kampala, Uganda, on Wednesday (today), 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.
CHRI’s statement came despite reports from Pakistan that Musharraf may be starting to roll back some of the curbs he recently imposed in a bid to end weeks of raging political turmoil.
Musharraf has been under immense international pressure to release prisoners, end media restrictions and step down as army chief.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II and government leaders from the Commonwealth meet in Uganda this week for their biennial summit, with concern over the situation in member state Pakistan likely to dominate talks.
Foreign ministers from the 53-nation grouping last week gave President Pervez Musharraf an ultimatum to restore the country’s constitution and lift the state of emergency by November 22 or face suspension.
The deadline falls at the end of the foreign ministers’ meeting in Kampala and on the eve of the official opening of the three-day summit, where talks about moves to democracy in Pakistan had already been put high on the agenda.
But with General Musharraf refusing to lift the state of emergency he imposed on November 3 and growing dissent from opposition groups, the crisis could eclipse other key issues like climate change and poverty reduction.
At the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on the Mediterranean island of Malta in 2005, Musharraf was urged to step down as head of the armed forces by the end of his presidential term in 2007.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon told AFP in an interview in London on November 7 that there had been some progress in Pakistan since Musharraf took over in a coup in 1999 but he should keep his promises.
Pakistan was previously suspended from the Commonwealth for five years from 1999 but welcomed back into the fold on condition he took off his uniform.
Away from Pakistan, McKinnon said tackling climate change and securing a fairer world trade deal for poorer nations were “right at the top” of the talks, all of which take place behind closed doors in “retreat”.
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