By Manish Chand
New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) The Commonwealth will keep a close watch on the presidential election in Pakistan next month and see whether Pervez Musharraf keeps his word and sheds the uniform of army chief if he is re-elected as president, says Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon.
“The Commonwealth leaders effectively said two years ago in Malta that Pakistan had made some progress in the direction of democracy and this progress should be continued,” McKinnon, who currently heads the 53-nation club of mainly ex-colonies of the British empire, told IANS in an interview here.
“We have, however, made it clear that the role of the president and the chief of the armed forces should not be held by one person,” he said, underlining the need for Pakistan to “return to representative, civilian democracy”.
Pakistan’s federal and provincial legislators will elect their president Oct 6 in which Musharraf is seen as a leading contender. Musharraf’s term expires on Nov 15 before which he is expected to name a new army chief.
“If you look at the timeline, you will notice that the new president of Pakistan has to be sworn in just a week before the Commonwealth leaders meet for their summit in Kampala in November,” he said.
“So there will be a comment at the summit on whether Pakistan has succeeded in getting through this process and at the same time met the commitments made to the Commonwealth,” he said, while stressing that the Commonwealth leaders will be keenly watching the conduct of the presidential election which must be seen as free and fair by Pakistani people.
“I said when I was in Pakistan recently that Pakistan was headed for the next four crucial months concluding in January when they will probably have national elections.”
The Commonwealth suspended Pakistan’s membership from its decision-making councils following the coup in October 1999, but re-admitted it to the fold in 2004 after Musharraf took some steps in the direction of democratic governance.
McKinnon, a former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of New Zealand, is here to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, an annual jamboree of parliamentarians from the Commonwealth countries, which is debating interlinked issues of democracy and sustainable development.
He is, however, not pessimistic about the future of democracy in Pakistan – a country where he emphasised the democratic tradition had yet to take root.
“I believe that Pakistan has been working quite assiduously to improve its institutions. The national assembly would be more broadly representative of the people of Pakistan than it has ever been in the past,” he said.
McKinnon underlined that democracy was not just about elections but an ongoing process that involves institution building and transparent governance.
McKinnon is upbeat about India, the world’s largest democracy, where millions voted in the last parliamentary elections held in 2004, and lauded India’s growing role in the Commonwealth, which represents about 1.8 billion people and a fifth of global trade.
“India has in the last decade really moved to play a significant role in the Commonwealth. This is reflected in the conference it is having now,” he said.
“This is reflected in the Commonwealth Games it will be hosting in 2010. This is reflected in the fact that India is fielding a candidate for the post of secretary general. To us, it is very important that India plays a significant role in the Commonwealth.”
He also backed a place for New Delhi in an expanded Security Council and envisioned a key role by India and other developing countries in the Doha round of world trade talks to achieve a more equitable global trading regime.
McKinnon, however, tactfully refused to comment on chances of Indian candidate Kamalesh Sharma, New Delhi’s envoy to London, for the top post in the Commonwealth. “I just want to see a good competitive field of candidates,” he said.