ISLAMABAD, 21 September 2007 — The Commonwealth appreciates Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to give up his post of army chief but is waiting to see that he follows through, the group’s secretary general said yesterday.

Musharraf said this week he would quit as army chief if re-elected president for another term by an electoral college of members of the national and provincial assemblies.

The Commonwealth of 53 mostly ex-British Empire countries suspended Pakistan’s membership after Gen. Musharraf mounted a bloodless coup in 1999 but readmitted it in 2004, citing progress in democratic reforms.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said he had reiterated that when he met Musharraf on Wednesday. He also said he acknowledged and greatly appreciated Musharraf’s promise to give up the army post.

“We appreciate what is happening in this direction, the commitments that have been made, but ultimately, the jury is out for a little while yet,” McKinnon told a news conference. “We will monitor presidential and general elections,” he added.

McKinnon, who arrived on Wednesday for a three-day visit, noted that Musharraf faced legal challenges by opponents who wanted to block his attempt for a new term. General elections are due by mid-January.

“You’re going into quite a difficult period ... The next four months are very critical to the future of Pakistan,” he said.

The Commonwealth hoped the process would be worked out smoothly and generally with the support of the people, he said. “We can certainly appreciate and acknowledge the long distance Pakistan has traveled since 1999 ... but we still have to be concerned about getting through a process which really begins almost immediately,” he said.

McKinnon said Pakistan would be invited as an observer at the forthcoming Commonwealth summit in Kampala and not as a full member because complete democracy has not yet been restored.

The secretary-general said the Commonwealth would also like to see the rule of law and supremacy of courts in Pakistan. McKinnon said the Commonwealth and many other human rights organizations were monitoring developments in Pakistan.

In their talks on Wednesday, Musharraf stressed his “firm resolve to hold free, fair and transparent elections”, the state news agency said.

McKinnon also met Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and senior officials from Pakistan’s two main opposition parties. The Commonwealth represents 1.8 billion people and a fifth of global trade but it has no formal decision-making powers.

8 Troops Injured in Rocket Attack

Eight Pakistani soldiers were injured yesterday when suspected pro-Taleban militants fired rockets at a checkpoint in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

Troops at the Khajuri checkpoint in North Waziristan responded to the attack with artillery fire, but there were no immediate reports about militant casualties, a security official told AFP.

“Eight soldiers were injured, two of them seriously when two rockets hit their post,” the official said.

Pakistan has lost around 1,000 troops since pushing forces into the tribal belt to hunt Al-Qaeda-led militants who fled the US-led invasion that toppled Afghanistan’s Taleban regime after the 9/11 attacks.

In a separate incident, suspected militants shot dead a tribesman who they said had spied on their activities in Bajaur, another tribal district on the Afghan border. The bullet-riddled body of the tribesman was found some 25 kilometers northwest of Khar, the main town in Bajaur, a security official said.