New Delhi
22 March 2007
Musharraf to shed his military uniform without delay, visiting Commonwealth Secretary
General Don McKinnon on Thursday told this newspaper.
He also said that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which will
meet in Uganda in November this year, would discuss the situation in Pakistan and it
could propose some action in this regard.
"We have been talking about Pakistan for some time. It was suspended for five or six
years and at the last CHOGM meeting Pakistan was told to take steps for a return to
democracy by the end of this year," he said.
"Pakistan will be on the agenda (of CHOGM)," he said on the sidelines of his address to
the Indian Council of World Affairs. He said that he would visit Pakistan "sometime this
year" and also send observers for free and fair polls.
"India," he observed, "stood as a tremendous example and so [other countries in South
Asia] cannot say that things are not possible or that it (democracy) won't work for us. It
may take longer time but it will come."
Mr McKinnon, who reached New Delhi from Dhaka, said that it was certain that the
caretaker government in Bangladesh "will extend its life beyond one year". He felt that
there was a need for rebuilding democratic institutions there.
Earlier in his address on "21st century challenges", Mr McKinnon said, "Pakistan [has] a
president who wears two hats -- those of President and chief of army staff. [He] has been
requested to choose between the two."
Referring also the internal strife in Sri Lanka, Maldives's slow movement towards real
representative democracy and the current situation in Bangladesh, Mr McKinnon said,
"In each of these countries there are contradictions and challenges but collectively we
must shape the solutions to the common, transnational challenges of democracy,
development and diversity."
He felt that Commonwealth should seek to nurture democracy at three levels. "We have
to support the forms of democracy, like free and fair elections. We have to support the
institutions of democracy, like a parliament, a judiciary and an executive which are apart
but work together, responsible armed forces and police .... And finally we have to support
a real culture of democracy ... of citizens having a say in how they are governned."
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