An inevitable suspension

The Commonwealth's decision to suspend Pakistan indefinitely from its grouping reflects the multinational organization's firm emphasis on democratic and representative governance by its member-states. But, by its obsessive concentration on this issue, India, which lobbied actively for reprisal action against the military regime in Pakistan, revealed an unwholesome display of partisanship, ignoring the longer-term objectives. Concentrating its diplomatic efforts on getting the Commonwealth to impose a timetable for a return to democracy in Pakistan, India ignored the ground realities in that beleaguered country, and also the need to stay engaged with the regime in Islamabad. The summit, convening for the first time in post-apartheid South Africa, took the only possible decision by suspending Pakistan from membership pending a return to democracy. Any other, softer option would have been self-defeating for an organization that is holding a democracy festival in Durban, hailing the return of civilian rule in Nigeria and Sierra Leone through its campaigns. With the Commonwealth setting its face against unelected governments under the 1991 Harare Declaration, there was no scope for compromise by which the Pervez Musharraf regime could have been allowed to participate. That the organization did not yield to pressure for more punitive action against Pakistan may not mean much in a situation where it has hardly any leverage in Islamabad.

In the circumstances, suspension from membership was the only realistic route to the Commonwealth destination of an ultimate return to the democratic path by Pakistan. But it failed to answer the criticism that the organization's guide has no provision to deal with abuses of democracy by elected governments, of the type that Gen. Musharraf cited when he seized power a month ago. Nor are there any guidelines on ways to stop a new ruler from turning an investigation into an excuse for jailing a political rival and seeking to immobilize him. Gen. Musharraf has just taken a massive leap backward by filing charges of hijacking and kidnapping against the ousted Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif. It is an action deeply reminiscent of the way his dictator-predecessor, Gen. Zia ul-Haq, put his own deposed Prime Minister, Z. A. Bhutto, to death, ignoring worldwide appeals for clemency.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi