Commonwealth parliamentary meet shifted to London

After Indian protests led to cancellation of Islamabad as its venue, the International Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) will now meet from September 30 to October 6 in London, where participating countries will send much smaller delegations.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) is effectively over for this year after Indian protests led to cancellation of Islamabad as its venue.

London

Instead, the International Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) will now meet from September 30 to October 6 in London, where participating countries will send much smaller delegations.

While India had a quota of 23 participants in the full-fledged meeting of the CPC, it may send only three members for the executive committee.

Lok Sabha sources told HT that MPs PD Rai (Sikkim) and Meenakshi Lekhi (Delhi) and Punjab assembly speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal are likely to go to London.

While the Indian delegation refused to go to Pakistan as J&K assembly speaker Kavinder Gupta was not invited, there is little scope of his participation in the executive committee. Pakistan’s refusal was on the pretext that such an invitation would be “a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions, and contradict the fundamentals of Pakistan’s foreign policy”.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan called an emergency meeting of heads of all legislative bodies and it was unanimously decided to seek removal of the venue from Pakistan.

The Speaker will make a presentation on 'Development: Innovating for Financing for Gender Equality' at the annual Women Speakers’ meet in New York. The panel will discuss gender inclusive decision-making processes, and how to end violence against women and harmful practices, particularly in conflict situations.