India to boycott Commonwealth event in Islamabad

They cited an old rule of 1951-57 regarding their having raised an issue in the UN SC for not inviting J&K speaker

India is likely to back out from a Commonwealth Parliamentary Union (CPU) event, to be held in Islamabad next month, in protest against Pakistan not inviting the speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the Press Trust of India reported on Friday.

“A meeting of speakers of all states here today unanimously decided that India will boycott the meeting of the CPU if the speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is not invited,” the news agency quoted Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan as saying after the meeting.

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The decision of the speakers comes against the backdrop of simmering tensions between the two border states over the recent terror attacks in Gurdaspur in Punjab and near Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mahajan said this was against a rule in the CPU in which all the speakers, who are members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), have to be extended an invitation to the CPU meeting.

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They cited an old rule of 1951-57 regarding their having raised an issue in the UN Security Council for not inviting Jammu and Kashmir speaker,” she claimed, adding that this was the reply she received when she raised the issue with CPA Chairperson and Secretary General against leaving out Jammu and Kashmir Speaker.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2015.