Gen stalled India’s entry into OIC at last minute

The organisation of Islamic conference, an exclusive club of Islamic countries was all set to shun its antagonism towards India and admit it as a full-fledged member last year but backtracked at the last moment after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf threatened to withdraw from the group.

Musharraf averted an ‘‘unprecedented disaster’’ for foreign policy by threatening to pull out from the OIC after the Islamic group geared up to move a resolution to admit India in its ranks at foreign ministers meeting in Khartoum in Sudan last year, The News daily said today.

‘‘The OIC conference of foreign ministers held in Khartoum in June 2002 in a closed door meeting began discussing the possibility of admitting India as a member of the OIC considering its massive population of Muslims,’’ it quoted an unnamed official of Pakistan Foreign Ministry as saying.

The OIC move was backed by several Arab countries. Watching the situation going out of hand, the then information minister, Nisar Memon, called Musharraf which prompted the General to issue the threat.