Pakistan decries its suspension from Commonwealth

The Toronto Star notes that Canada, one of the nine members of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), was a key supporter of the decision to suspend Pakistan and helped to overcome resistance by some members of the CMAG. The Star adds that the Commonwealth's decision was applauded by Human Rights Watch. "The ministers have to keep faith with the people of Pakistan who are seeking to restore democracy in their country," Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch said.

Although the suspension is embarrassing for Pakistan, it is largely symbolic and will have only limited practical effect, reports Australia's ABC News.

"I would say it's embarrassing for Pakistan, and Pakistan's leaders are actually going to meet on the Monday to talk about it, and the possible implication of it,' [Bina D'Costa, a security analyst at the Australian National University] said. But she says Pakistan would be more concerned if it was excluded from the alliance with the United States. "That's where the real pressure is going to come from," she said. "But I guess, having said that, that all these opposition parties are going to use this expulsion from the Commonwealth, seeing that how embarrassing it is for Pakistan, as a state, to be expelled."

An analysis in the Guardian agrees that the suspension has little practical value, but it adds that Pakistan actively sought to avoid such a fate.

In practical terms, there is little the 53-member group, a hangover from the British empire, can do to hurt Pakistan. Suspension will end the funding of projects designed to encourage economic liberalisation and good governance, and a ban on Pakistan attending meetings of Commonwealth heads of government. Yet few countries revel in pariah status and Pakistan exhibited all the signs of not wanting to be thrown out of the Commonwealth club. It lobbied hard for a delay. Calls were put in to Gordon Brown, the prime minister, by Pakistan's caretaker prime minister, Mohammedmian Soomro, and Musharraf himself, asking for a reprieve. Soomro urged the Commonwealth to send a delegation to Pakistan for a first-hand assessment of the situation. If Pakistan had been blase about suspension, it would not have bothered with such an intense diplomatic effort.

Islamabad's attitude appears to contrast sharply with that of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002. The Guardian notes that Mr. Mugabe called the group "a mere club" where "some members are more equal than others." The only other nation currently suspended from the Commonwealth is Fiji, ousted after its military coup last year, though Reuters notes that since 1949, several countries – including South Africa, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone – have been suspended and later readmitted to the group.

Page: 1 | 2