The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan tops agenda of C’wealth meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 23, 2007
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Pakistan tops agenda of C’wealth meet

Kampala: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here on Thursday night to attend the summit of Commonwealth countries opening here on Friday. The meet has democracy on top of the agenda as the leaders face mounting pressure to suspend emergency-bound Pakistan from the group.

Contentious issues like climate change, human rights and terrorism will also be on the radar of the leaders of the 53-country grouping at their three-day summit in the Ugandan capital.

Dr. Singh said in a pre-departure statement in Delhi that CHOGM 2007 “has a rich agenda before it. This includes review of global developments including climate change, the millennium development goals, human rights and terrorism.”

Dr. Singh said he was looking forward to meeting a large number of world leaders and “have constructive dialogue with them on both bilateral and international issues.”

The grouping will take a decision on its ultimatum to Pakistan to repeal emergency imposed on November 3, restore the Constitution and step down as Army Chief or face suspension. The 10-day deadline ended on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group met for the first time since setting the deadline. African members pushed hard for Pakistan’ suspension, highly-placed sources said. Britain and Canada toughened their stand after soft-pedalling on the issue initially. However, Sri Lanka and Malaysia went soft on any action, the sources said.

Given the divided opinion, they did not rule out the possibility of either postponing an action against Pakistan or extending the timeline for Islamabad to comply. — PTI

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