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Publication: Sify News
Date: May 27, 2003
URL: http://headlines.sify.com/2277news2.html?headline=Musharraf~scuttled~India's~bid~to~join~OIC
India, which has the second largest
Muslim population country in the world after Indonesia, was almost set
to join the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
But Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
intervened and scuttled the move at the eleventh hour.
Mushsrraf's frustration-laden threat
prevailed, and India missed getting a berth in the OIC by a whisker, The
News reported on Monday.
Quoting well placed official sources,
the paper said the 29th OIC conference of foreign ministers held in Khartoum
(Sudan) in June 2002 was seriously considering India's name for OIC membership.
But, barely a few hours before a
resolution to this effect was to be passed, Pakistan's information minister
Nisar Memon telephoned Musharraf, who directed him to immediately clear
Pakistan's reservations against extending the membership to India.
Following the President's orders,
Memon even conveyed Pakistan's decision to the OIC secretary-general and
key Arab states who were in favour of the move. He reportedly told the
OIC members that Pakistan will immediately withdraw from the OIC.
The paper said it was midnight in
Pakistan when Memon called up Musharraf's. Considering the seriousness
of the matter, the latter was woken up.
Pakistan's undesired intervention
not only jeopardised India's chances of entering OIC, but managed to pass
a resolution condemning human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. The
resolution tabled by Pakistan even called for appointing a special representative
of the OIC secretary-general on Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the report, the conference
rejected efforts of associating terrorism with Islam, besides emphasising
the need for a clearer definition of terrorism drawing distinction between
struggles of the people for their right to self-determination. ANI
