C'wealth restores Pak membership

LONDON - The Commonwealth readmitted Pakistan as a full member on Monday after a six-month suspension triggered by a clampdown by President Pervez Musharraf.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration (CMAG) in its twenty-ninth meeting at Marlborough House in London announced the decision.

The meeting was attended by Akwasi Osei Adjei, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ghana; Dr Rais Yatim, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia; Marco Hausiku, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia; Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand; Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka; Sam Kutesa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda; Lord (Mark) Malloch-Brown, UK Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN; Jean Kekedo, High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea to the UK; and Eldridge Stephens, High Commissioner of St Lucia to the UK.

CMAG received a report from the Chairman on his recent visit to Pakistan in April 2008. It also received a report from the Secretary-General on the Secretariat's engagement with Pakistan and developments in that country since CMAG's last meeting on 22 November 2007.