ISLAMABAD, 26 May 2004 — President Pervez Musharraf hit back at the Commonwealth’s warnings that it would monitor Pakistan’s democratic progress after readmitting it to the 53-nation club, a report said yesterday

“If we are happy to be in the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth should be proud of having a country like Pakistan joining it, so therefore we don’t accept such conditionalities,” Musharraf was quoted by the Daily Times as telling a students’ convention.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said Pakistan’s democratic progress would be reviewed again in September.

However, Pakistani officials said the readmission was “long overdue” and said several Commonwealth members themselves had poor records of democracy and human rights. “Countries who made the decision should look at their own records before criticizing others,” Musharraf added in Monday’s speech.

Opposition parties, some of whom urged the Commonwealth to maintain the suspension because of the army’s continued political power and recent jailing and deportation of two key opposition figures, said the readmission amounted to a reward for dictatorship.

Analysts linked the Commonwealth decision to Pakistan’s cooperation with the US in arresting Al-Qaeda suspects. It has rounded up more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects since late 2001 including three senior aides of Osama Bin Laden and handed the majority over to US custody.

Islamabad is one of Washington’s most strategic allies in the war on terrorism.

Bomb Damages Gas Pipeline

A powerful bomb blast damaged a natural gas pipeline in southern Pakistan yesterday, the state-run operator said. Sui Southern Gas said the blast destroyed about 65 meters of the pipeline near the southern city of Nawabshah, disrupting gas supplies in the northeastern part of Sindh province.

There were no reports of any casualties.

Disgruntled Pakistani tribesmen have bombed natural gas pipelines several times this year. On Saturday, suspected tribesmen fired 16 rockets at a state-run natural gas facility in southwestern Pakistan and damaged a main pipeline.

A statement from Sui Southern said yesterday’s explosion was so powerful that one nine-meter section of the 40 cms pipeline was blown a distance of 100 meters.

It said block valves upstream and downstream from the site of the blast were immediately closed to prevent any major loss of gas.