news.com.au ,
PAKISTAN overnight complained of discrimination as it railed against its continued ban from the Commonwealth and urged the body to reconsider its decision.
Ministers of the 54-nation body meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, at the weekend voted to maintain Pakistan's suspension, which was imposed in the wake of an army coup in 1999 led by President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan believes that its rival India repeatedly blocked any move to readmit the Islamic republic.
“The criteria or standards they have used to exclude Pakistan are discriminatory and they do not make sense,” foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a weekly press briefing.
“Many of the influential Commonwealth countries support Pakistan's re-entry as a fully-fledged member into the Commonwealth. These include the UK, Australia and other countries,” Khan said.
He urged the Commonwealth to demonstrate “a bit of democracy” and said Pakistan's re-entry was being blocked by one or two countries.
Secretary General Don McKinnon said ministers had concluded “there were some outstanding issues” in Pakistan's restoration of democracy since the 1999 coup, despite the revival of parliaments through nationwide polls last year.
Unlike Zimbabwe, Pakistan would not be pulling out of the Commonwealth, Khan said. “I think it would not be a mature decision,” he said.
