Secretary-General Don McKinnon said that, if Musharraf fails to meet its demands by a ministers' meeting on the eve of a November 23-25 Commonwealth summit in Uganda, Pakistan will be suspended as a member.
"CMAG agreed that at its next meeting on the 22 November, if after review of progress Pakistan has failed to implement these necessary measures, it will suspend Pakistan from the councils of the Commonwealth," he told reporters. "We have given Pakistan a little breathing space between now and then to comply" with the demands, he added, when asked why they did not suspend Pakistan straightaway.
He was speaking after an extraordinary meeting of CMAG, which deals with serious breaches of the Commonwealth's guiding principles. McKinnon said that Pakistan had "seriously violated the Commonwealth's fundamental values" and said this should be addressed in the following ways: - "immediate repeal of the emergency provisions and full restoration of the constitution and of the independence of the judiciary" and restoration of the rule of law; - "President Musharraf to step down as chief of army staff as promised"; - "immediate release of political party leaders and activists, human rights activists, lawyers and journalists"; - "immediate removal of... restrictions on the press"; - "move rapidly towards the creation of conditions for the creation of free and fair elections".
McKinnon too gave the announcement only a guarded response. He said: "CMAG welcomed the announcement by General Musharraf that parliamentary elections will be held before January 9, 2008 but stressed that such elections would not be credible unless the state of emergency is removed and constitutional rights of the people, political parties and independence of the judiciary are restored".
He also listed a series of actions which he said were "a severe breach" of Commonwealth principles, including the dismissal and placing under house arrest of the country's chief justice and several other judges. Pakistan was previously suspended from the Commonwealth in 1999, after army general Musharraf seized power. It was reinstated in 2004.
Last year, CMAG suspended Fiji after a military coup in the south Pacific Ocean nation, while Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002 in the wake of President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election.
The CMAG comprises representatives of nine Commonwealth states - Britain, Canada, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Papua New Guinea, St Lucia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The Commonwealth is dominated by countries which were formerly part of the British Empire.