Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
JYOTI MALHOTRA & AGENCIES
PIETERMARITZBURG, NOV 15: Sending a clear signal that at least for now, General Pervez Musharraf cannot get away so easily, the Commonwealth continued to recognise deposed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as the constitutional head and suggested that it may impose sanctions against Islamabad if democracy wasn't restored ``at the earliest.''
Even the text of the statement issued at the end of the summit showed the Commonwealth's hard line on the subject. Recognising the unconstitutionality of the Musharraf regime, the summit warned Islamabad of ``further measures'' if progress to democracy was not speedily made and demanded immediate release of the ousted premier and others detained with him.
In a tersely worded eight-page communique, the Commonwealth leaders, who have decided to indefinitely suspend Islamabad from the 54-nation grouping, asked its Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to keep the situation in Pakistan under review. Earlier, Prime Minister A B Vajpayee echoed the Commonwealth's concernindicating that sanctions against Pakistan couldn't be ruled out if real progress towards democracy was not made. He was speaking aloud at the railway station of Pietermaritzburg where some 106 years ago Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi embarked upon his struggle for a tolerant and egalitarian society.
Vajpayee's visit to the station this morning was a last-minute addition to his programme but he described it as a ``pilgrimage to one of the defining locations in India's freedom struggle.'' Last year, during the much-shorter Non-Aligned summit, also in Durban, Vajpayee had only visited some historic sites in the city relating to the major events of his 20-odd-year stay in this country.
Garlanding a statue of Gandhi in the middle of Pietermaritzburg, Vajpayee didn't duck questions on India's on-off relationship with neighbouring Pakistan. Interestingly, leaders from the Third World at deliberations here over the last few days have been far stronger and vocal in their commitment to the democracy rather than theWestern members of this body. Asked why the Commonwealth insisted on describing Nawaz Sharif as the ``Prime Minister of Pakistan,'' the PM pointed out that the ``collective view'' that emerged here was that there was ``no other constitutional head to recognise.''
Asked whether that meant that India would not recognise the military regime of Musharraf, Vajpayee, not usually given to the cast-in-stone statement, pointed out that that ``was a difficult question. We as neighbours have to deal with existing realities.''
During this visit, Vajpayee has deliberately sought to emphasise common linkages with South Africa part of which has been the Gandhi darshan unlike last year when New Delhi at the non-aligned summit was deeply upset with what it felt was a deliberate slight by Pretoria on the reference to Kashmir as a ``troubled hot spot of the world.''
At the Commonwealth summit, Vajpayee has felt renewed and vindicated by the support on issues like democracy and the threat of international terrorism todemocratic societies. He focussed on this theme today again, while thanking his colleagues at the concluding session of the summit. ``We have heard so many eloquent statements about the importance of democracy as the basic yardstick for Commonwealth countries.
This is a very welcome characterisation of the Commonwealth. As the world's largest democracy, India takes pride in its traditions and conventions which uphold the values of democracy, tolerance and secularism,'' the PM said in his intervention.
Describing terrorism as ``one of the most serious threats to democracy,'' the PM exhorted his colleagues to translate this into specific action. ``No political cause can justify terrorist acts,'' he said.
Interestingly, the newly elected Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon of New Zealand, did not once use the word ``democracy'' in his acceptance speech issued this afternoon. Instead, he said, the body should focus on the organisation's strengths such as ``unity of purpose, consensual styleof work, shared sense of morality, its determination to encourage rather than compel.''
The CHOGM communique also outlined an agenda for the future. It proposed a high-level group to review the role of the Commonwealth and advise on how best it could respond to the challenges of the new century. A group, chaired by the President of South Africa, will include Vajpayee and the heads of government of Australia, Fiji, Malta, Singapore, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. It will report to the next CHOGM in Australia in 2001.
The Commonwealth shall also promote international and regional co-operation and strengthen international legal framework to ensure that terrorists do not find safe haven in any part of the world.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------