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Pak to investigate India's 'secret tapes'

Special Correspondent in New Delhi

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's new military ruler, has said that his regime will investigate the role of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharief in how India was able to eavesdrop and tape the telephonic conversation between him, then in China, and his subordinate during the height of the Kargil crisis.

General Musharraf also revealed that Sharief would be tried for conspiring to kill him after his return to Karachi from Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Pakistan will ''almost certainly'' be suspended from the Commonwealth tomorrow following the military takeover earlier this week, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook today told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The move, expected at a special meeting in London tomorrow, would follow an address by Musharraf in which he is expected to announce an ''efficient and impartial interim set-up''.

Cook stressed Pakistan's suspension from the Commonwealth would be aimed at restoring democracy in the country at the earliest possible date.

He said on BBC-1's breakfast programme: ''the rules of the Commonwealth are quite clear --- they are set out in a set of principles that members of the Commonwealth must abide by democratic principles and observe human rights.''

''A country that has a military coup suspends itself from membership of the Commonwealth and therefore I expect that decision to be endorsed on Monday,'' Cook said, insisting that ''we are acting as a friend of Pakistan.''

''We have many historic and community ties with Pakistan. We want the people of Pakistan to have the right to elect a government that's accountable to them, a civilian government that can tackle some of the real tensions in the sub-continent and continue the process of dialogue with India,'' Cook said.

With added reportage by UNI

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