By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : Commonwealth foreign ministers began a meeting here Monday to decide whether or not to suspend Pakistan amid signs that they would defer the decision to allow President Pervez Musharraf more time to take steps to restore democracy.
Senior London-based diplomats said the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) – a key group that decides what to do with persistent violators of democracy and human rights in the 53-nation group – was likely to take cognisance of Musharraf’s statement Sunday promising elections by Jan 9 next year.
However, Musharraf is certain to face strident calls for rolling back the anti-democratic measures he took earlier this month while declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan, including the detention of lawyers and other political opponents, suspension of the constitution and withdrawal of press freedom.
The view in the Commonwealth is that just announcing an election date without lifting emergency provisions will not guarantee free and fair polls.
“The mood appears to be to defer the actual decision until Commonwealth leaders meet in Kampala in 10 days’ time,” a diplomat told IANS, referring to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Ugandan capital Nov 23-25.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri Sunday telephoned his Maltese counterpart Michael Frendo, who chairs the CMAG, in a bid to stave off Pakistan’s suspension.
“I received a call from the Pakistan foreign minister to explain the context in which the action (by Musharraf) was taken,” said Frendo, who is the chairman of CMAG – a body composed of the foreign ministers of nine countries, currently Britain, Canada, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
Diplomats said Kasuri called up mainly to tell Frendo about Musharraf speaking about holding elections by Jan 9, ahead of the scheduled Jan 15.
“General Musharraf would be wrong to ignore what the Commonwealth is saying,” Frendo told BBC Radio 4. “We want Pakistan to remain a member of the family of nations of the Commonwealth, but we want to make sure that the principles of the Commonwealth are respected.”
Monday’s meeting follows informal consultations among London-based diplomats from the nine countries that are members of the CMAG.
Britain, a powerful voice in the CMAG, has welcomed Musharraf’s Sunday statement but is insisting on the lifting of the emergency and release of political prisoners.
“Without these, elections cannot be held in a free and fair manner,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.
Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said Friday that the country is “pressing for a strong Commonwealth response that sets clear deadlines for the end of the state of emergency and for the restoration of democratic processes”.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will is not attending Monday’s meeting – he has chosen to be present at the House of Common’s for a debate on foreign affairs – and has despatched his junior minister Lord Mark Falloch-Brown instead.
Miliband told the House of Commons Wednesday, “The government of Pakistan says they (the emergency powers) are temporary. It is vital that they are so,” he added.
Secretary-General Don McKinnon said before Musharraf’s latest move that Pakistan’s suspension “has to be there” as a possible sanction.
But he refused to predict the outcome of Monday’s meeting, saying “these are nine quite independent foreign ministers. If you look where they come from, they could quite easily have nine different views.”
Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth in 1999 after Musharraf ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharief in an army coup but was restored as a full member after he promised to shed his military uniform – a key Commonwealth demand that remains unfulfilled.
At their meeting in Malta in 2005, Commonwealth leaders declared that a single individual holding the offices of head of state and chief of army staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Commonwealth’s principles. They said that until the two offices are separated, the process of democratisation in Pakistan will not be considered irreversible.
However, Musharraf continues to be both president and army chief.
Currently, two countries remain suspended from the Commonwealth – Zimbabwe for what were widely seen as rigged elections in 2002, and Fiji for a military coup last year.