Sir Patrick Cormack FSA

Conservative Party | Staffordshire South

Question on Pakistan

Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): While I wholly endorse the Foreign Secretary’s general approach—and also the wise words of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind)—does the Foreign Secretary agree that it would be folly to demonise Musharraf? There are dictators and dictators, and this dictator has been, to a degree, an enlightened one.

David Miliband: We shall come to the finer distinctions of dictatorship when obituaries need to be written. My concern—which I am sure the hon. Gentleman shares—is for the people of Pakistan. As he spoke up from a sedentary position when my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley (Mrs. Cryer) raised the issue of expulsion from the Commonwealth, I thought that he was going to ask about that. In response to an earlier question I referred specifically to a suspension rather than an expulsion. That is an important aspect of this issue, and we must consider it.