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Inter-Parliamentary Union suspends Pakistan

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The 103rd conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has suspended Pakistan from its membership for the dissolution of its National Assembly and the inability of the regime led by General Pervez Musharraf to restart the electoral process.

Disclosing this at a press conference in New Delhi today, IPU president and Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla pointed out that the other countries suspended for derailing their parliamentary systems were the Ivory Coast and Sudan.

She said Pakistan's suspension was the result of its toppling a democratically elected government and replacing it with a dictatorial regime that has not even assured the international community of the country's return to the electoral process.

Heptulla returned recently from Amman, Jordan, where she and Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi had led a delegation to attend the IPU's 103rd conference from April 30-May 6.

The other members of the delegation were Sharad Pawar (NCP), Margaret Alva (Congress ), K Yerran Naidu (TDP) and Vijay Kumar Malhotra (BJP).

King Abdullah II of Jordan inaugurated the conference. Besides the general debate on the political, economic and social situation in the world, it discussed "achieving peace, stability and comprehensive development in the world and forging closer ties among the peoples", Heptulla said.

According to Heptulla, "India played a major role in this conference" by participating in the discussions on important issues. She also discussed bilateral relations with almost 60 countries at the conference.

Heptulla emphasised that she had called for a closer interaction between the IPU and the media to highlight its achievements. "Whatever we do should be known to the people," she pointed out, adding that the idea was to have closer co-operation between the media and the parliaments of the world.

One important aspect was the IPU raising the issue of reservation for women in legislatures. The issue had been highlighted in 1997 also.

"I told Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to bring the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha so that we can pass it, but unfortunately it did not happen," Heptulla said. She said she failed to understand why MPs harped on a "consensus" whenever the issue was raised.

About 1500 parliamentarians, including 48 speakers, participated in the Amman conference.

Interestingly, clause 16 of the draft resolution adopted by the conference on political questions, international security and disarmament "recommends the signing and ratification by all states of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons". But Heptulla emphasized that India expressed its opposition to this clause as it wants a non-discriminatory NPT regime that treats all countries on an equal footing.

But she said India's opposition to this clause in no way harmed its standing in the IPU "because there have been disagreements on issues like the patent laws and WTO". She said there are many conventions and protocols that India has not signed for various reasons.

Among the various clauses unanimously adopted by the conference on international security and disarmament were "enhancing confidence-building measures, which are a good means of strengthening security and stability in international relations, and deploring the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons".

Heptulla said the next IPU conference will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in which India will be participating with a large delegation.

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