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Pakistan and Kenya

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new position and look forward to his questions and to our debates. I welcome what he said about Mrs. Bhutto. The hon. Gentleman raised some serious questions. The policy of the British Government throughout the period in respect of Pakistan, and in respect of other countries, is to support systems of government, not personalities. Before he starts throwing around allegations about whom we have bolstered and how we bolstered them, he should look at what has actually happened in practice. I defy him to find any example of the Government's supporting the crackdown on the media or the rejection of the development of a state of emergency. In respect of the judiciary, the judges who were dismissed were precisely those appointed by President Musharraf after 1999, so the hon. Gentleman should be careful about the allegations that he throws around. It is obviously vital that an independent judicial process is established and it is obviously right that we assert the case and continue to argue for an independent judicial process. I do not think it would be right for us to try to dictate about individual judicial cases or individual judges. Our position is to defend constitutional principles and the constitutional order. In respect of election monitoring, the hon. Gentleman made an important point about the EU mission, which I raised with Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner just before the new year. She confirmed to me that the EU would up the number of monitors to 60 from the 40 who were present for the 9 January elections. Today, there has been some talk of the number being increased to about 100. We obviously want to make sure that, combined with Commonwealth and other monitors, they are able to provide the evidence we need. In addition, I point the hon. Gentleman towards the need for the processes to be very transparent on the Pakistani side, and I am sure he would agree. I can confirm that we have recognised no new Government in Kenya. In respect of the United States position, I spoke to the Secretary of State on 30, or possibly 31, December. She made it absolutely clear to me that although the United States was happy to congratulate the Kenyan people on the way in which they had participated in the democratic process, it had issued no congratulation to an individual ““winner””; that her concerns about the irregularities identified by the EU are serious and real; and that she shares our commitment both to the spirit of compromise to which we referred in our joint statement and, critically, to the sharing of power. On the wider African elections, I referred in my statement to the forthcoming elections, which is why the engagement of the African Union is particularly important at this stage. The right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) asked about a British envoy. Although there are contingency plans for us to have additional Ministers or officials in the region, our first priority has been to try to ensure that an African mediator can go there, which is why we support so strongly the Kufuor mission. The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey) called for fresh elections. Whatever the irregularities of the recent election, they reveal a deeply divided country, and that will not be overcome however many times the election is rerun. Every allegation of irregularity must be investigated, but the deeper issue—the nature of the constitutional system, and whether a winner-takes-all system is right for Kenya—is one that many Kenyans are debating. I suggest to the hon. Gentleman that that is an important part of the mediation process that needs to be under way. Of course, fresh elections will be part of the discussions between the political parties, but they will have to be the end of the process, not the beginning of it.