Extraordinary session: President Zardari to attend OIC summit in Makkah
President Asif Ali Zardari will attend an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) scheduled to take place next month in the Saudi city of Makkah.
The summit, to be attended by leaders from the Islamic countries, is being convened on the suggestion of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to discuss the current situation facing the Muslim world.
A Foreign Office official confirmed on Friday that President Zardari will represent Pakistan at the gathering on August 14 and 15. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and senior officials will accompany the president, the official added.
Zardari is expected to brief the leaders from the Islamic world on Pakistan’s recent decision to lift the seven-month old ban on Nato supplies passing through the country. He will also talk about Pakistan’s efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan.
This will be the fourth such extraordinary summit of the OIC and it comes at a time when Muslim countries are facing many challenges, including the current situation in Syria, recent killings of Muslims in Myanmar and conflict in Afghanistan.
According to the statement issued by the OIC secretariat in Jeddah, the Saudi monarch has asked for the special session of the OIC to examine the situation in many countries of the Islamic world, and to intensify efforts to confront this situation.
The OIC is the world’s second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations.
According to the organisation, it is the collective voice of the Muslim world which works to safeguard the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various peoples of the world.
However, given the organisation’s track record and differences amongst several of its members, very few people expect any major developments when the summit takes place in the holy month of Ramazan.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2012.
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@chandran:
You already have "Hindu" organisations that serve your interests the likes of RSS, SHIV SENA, BAJRANG DAL & VHP.
No wonder indian muslims are so terrified of openly speaking out against the atrocities perpetrated by your brethren "Hindus"*
OIC = Oh I see, but cant do anything, becuase our Qibla is not mecca but the white house..a sham
What is OIC?
Bunch of dictators and Sheikhs with petro-dollars.
Oh I see.
@Lala Gee:
What you think is not the fact. You need to polish your knowledge and remove hatred towards 1200 million Indians, your next door neighbors.
India unfortunately did try to become part of OIC in Rabaat, the venue of 1st OIC. It was an attempt by Congress, who plays vote bank politics in India with Muslim votes.
Thanks to Pakistan, India was not allowed. This was a great favor done to India.
Regarding your other points, condition of Muslims in India is much better than the condition of Muslims in Muslim countries such as Pakistan or even better than 100s of millions of other poor Indian. In any case, it is better than what it used to be during Mughal regime.
More Muslims have been killed by Muslims, for instance, 4 million killed in Iran-Iraq war of 1980s, 10 million killed in Afghanistan war since 1979 and 3 million eliminated by Muslim Punjabi army in East Pakistan in 1971.
So stop pointing finger at India. You have no idea of present-day India with 1200 million population. It is not perfect but much better than Pakistan in all respects.
All dictators despots and kings of the middle east will fall! No matter what they do, they cannot protect themselves now!
Saudis want to discuss how to establish democracy in Syria? Or they are scared to be betrayed from their masters like Mubarak and others of their kind.
@Raj - USA:
"Thanks to Pakistan, India the only country that could give it some teeth is not in this organization."
I think India never officially requested for the membership or shown interest for an observer position to begin with. And who says that India needs OIC to do some good for Muslims. India can independently raise voice and use its influence over Burma to stop the genocide of Muslims there. But did she? India can certainly start from home by providing much delayed justice to Indian Muslims to prove her sincerity with the cause of Muslims.
1- Annual Report of Amnesty International for year 2012 (see section "Jammu and Kashmir"
2- India: A Decade on, Gujarat Justice Incomplete - Human Rights Watch 2012
3- India: Communal Violence and the Denial of Justice - Human Rights Watch
@Oops!e: OIC is only a mascot of US & Allies to control the Muslim countries. They are capable of only fighting between themselves nothing more nothing less
@The Truth: Rebels are killing everyone indiscriminately irrespective of muslim, christian or sunni, shia. Their salaries are admittedly being paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The rebels have been using civilian populations as human shields once they establish a foothold in an area. Syrian citizens scared and are saying that their lives might be put in further danger if the rebels seize power. Please don't only rely on Zionists' blessed media.
Agenda of the session must have been received. the hot ,current and urgent issue is the Syrian crisis which requires immediate attention. Atmosphere in the session ( after the lobbying by the Saudi Arabia) will be of an urgency to stopping the regime genocide on Syrian Muslim civilians and to achieve this there is a necessity to give consent for a step similar to Libya. Syrian regime is dominated by Alwaite while the subject is Sunni majority. Issues relating to Palestine, Afghanistan,even Myanmar may also be raised as token. (sanction on Iran will be given least importance). OIC has been and shall be used to further the interest of powerful albeit rich countries. Likewise Pakistan must also protect her interest.
I hope he will not speak about his Government's achievements!
@Mirza: Couldn't agree more, my friend. +1! -Rehan
I just hope something substantial comes out of it, although i think it has more to do wid syria and in bigger picture future conflict between saudi and anti saudi e.g iran. Sad in deed :(
@SHOAIB HASSAN Also condition of Sunnis in Iran and Afghanistan
Can we hope that THEY will discuss and take STRICT MEASURES FOR the support of INNOCENT BURMI MUSLIMS
@The Truth,
I can see that "Islamic solidarity" epitomized by the OIC oozing through you.
@Yaida M: Good comment
@san and Mard-e-Haq.. Why don't you people talk about the killing of sunnis by Syrian Army in Syria instead of telling everyone that gulf states are against the killing of Shais????
Saudi Arabia will try to influence Muslim leaders against Syria; to me this seems the key purpose
May be resolution against Syria before these Arab countries takes up the issue to UNSC. Saudia wants muslim countries back up against Syria. Pakistan's vote will be important since we are part of UNSC for now.
The "Muslim world"? Now, how would this 'Muslim world' react if the Christians held a 'Christian World' meeting? There is no 'world' for religion. It is a personal thing.
Pakistan should stay far away from such manipulative 'Tamashas' of this useless organization, this has nothing to do with 'cooperation' or Islamic anything. It's used to send signals to the powers that be about importance of some of the rich oil producing states. Countries likes Pakistan and Egypt with well trained militaries are used by this organization as its muscle. We are used by the Arabs as their trained guard dogs at their command. It is time that we refuse to sit down beside the tables and wait for some crumbs thrown down. We ought to tell these buggers either to pay what it takes to guard their interests or buz off and take their brand of Islam and 'Islamic Cooperation' with them.
OIC is so hollow !! It could never safeguard the rights of Muslims anywhere in the world..Its worthless to follow this summit's proceedings.
we Hindus we should also have one organization like organization of Hindu conference
hmm
The Saudis and other Gulf States are planning a genocide against Shias in the region, under the protection of their US buddies. Is Pakistan supposed to endorse an attack against Iran, and later a regional witchhunt against Shias?
President Zardari need to convey message to Saudi Kingdom to stop the genocide of Shai Muslim in Bahrain and stop stopping and funding terrorist groups in Pakistan. We are good without your money.
Oh I see.
I hope they also discuss persecution of all minoroties including shias in saudi.
@ The most intelligent pakistani , the president for next 5 years will attend the summit. Leave Butto or Zia or Musharraf , learn to live with Zardari.
OIC has been the downfall of so many muslim countries. It has given small and impoverished muslim countries a reason to believe they are powerful, even if they are poverty ridden. Pakistan is a classic case of thinking that it is one of the worlds most important nations! No wonder the downhill has been so rapid ever since ZAB thought he would play an important role in world affairs, based on the shoestrings of rich oil nations. Saudis have shown pakistan who is the boss. Each country bases its policy towards other countries based on its own interests and not because the other country is a muslim country.
Finally they've decided to come together - lets hope for the first time ever they take bold decisions. Syria and Burmese Muslims should be on hi-priority list; along with Kashmir and Palestine and Afghanistan.
The King of the SA now realized that revolution in Saudi Arabia is also expected to happen very soon but may Allah bring it without bloodshed because of the Holy cities of Makka and Madina.
In the context of losing election to their rival (islamic brotherhood) in Egypt, materially supporting rebels in Syria who are unleashing death and fire in Syria and earlier supressing freedom movement in Bahrain by using force, and then failing to stop the spreading of protests in their own eastern Saudi Arabia even after using live bullets, this seems to be an SOS call by a highly scared and frightened regime.
Prior to current OIC formation after 1967 Arab-Israel war, there was similar effort in the early 50's. Hussein Shaheed Suherwardi was the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time. To which his simple answer was 0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0=0. The situation has not changed much, I suspect.
OIC is good for nothing. Read somewhere OIC means "Oh I See". Thanks to Pakistan, India the only country that could give it some teeth is not in this organization. India is the only country that can speak for Muslims. Musharraf shipped out several Pakistanis to Guantanamo whereas Manmohan Singh took Australia to task for the sake of a Bangalore Muslim.
@Zaikam: And look what the generals and LHC and SC judges did to ZAB? The same generals who stole the elections from PPP/BB in 1990 also stole the elections from Ms. Jinnah in 1965. From the blatant killing of first PM of Pakistan to the killing of BB, not too many good people would come out to stand against the real powerful forces in the country. Regards, Mirza
Has it ever achieved anything lol?
Liberals will tell us what to do now.lol
Once we had Mr. Bhutto attending the summit with some cause, reputation and passion and now we have Mr. Zardari attending it with none of the above. We've travelled a long way towards our downfall.
What a waste of money and resources! Read the comments here at ET and you'll know what exactly needs to be done.