ISLAMABAD, 20 March 2004 — Pakistan has made significant progress toward democratic rule, clearing the way for its possible return to the Commonwealth, Secretary-General Don McKinnon said in an interview yesterday.
Nine foreign ministers representing countries in the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group were likely to look “positively” at Pakistan’s readmission to the 54-nation grouping of former British colonies when they meet in London in late April.
McKinnon said a scandal involving the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea by Pakistan’s top nuclear weapons scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was unlikely to be a key issue in deliberations over its readmission.
“The Commonwealth measures Pakistan’s democratic credentials. We don’t have a device to measure Pakistan’s geostrategic position, we don’t have a device to measure Pakistan’s stance on nuclear issues. Our concern is: Is Pakistan doing all it can to develop a contemporary democratic state,” said McKinnon, who is in Malaysia for a meeting of Commonwealth tourism ministers.
Pakistan was suspended from the body after then army chief Pervez Musharraf took power in a military coup in 1999.
McKinnon said now President Musharraf had taken significant steps to rebuild democratic institutions, including the holding of parliamentary elections in 2002 and the appointment of a prime minister.
“Many of the hurdles they have crossed,” McKinnon said.
He expects the April meeting of the foreign ministers of India, Malta, Canada, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Nigeria, Lesotho, Samoa and the Bahamas in London to look at Pakistan more favorably. Hosts Britain said in January they would also back the lifting of Pakistan’s suspension.
