REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL

REPORT

of the 8^th Session of the Council of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC)

Istanbul – Republic of Turkey

12-13 Rabi ul Awwal, 1427H

10 – 11 April 2006

1. In response to the kind invitation extended by His Excellency Prof. Bulent Arinc, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the 8^th Session of the Council of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), was held in Istanbul, on 10 -11 April 2006 under the presidency of His Excellency Guy Nzouba Ndama, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Gabon and President of the current Session of the PUIC Council.

2. The Session of the Council commenced its proceedings with listening to the blessed recitation of the Holy Quran, and in the presence of:

· H.E. Dr. Mohiddin Amimour, Representative of the National Assembly of Algeria as Vice-President for the Arab Group.

· H.E. Dr. Sait Yazicioglu, Representative of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as Vice-President for the Asian Group.

· H.E. Mustafa Eyiceoglu, Representative of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as Rapporteur of the proceedings of the Session.

Attending also were His Excellency Ambassador Ibrahim Auf, PUIC Secretary-General and His Excellency Ambassador Mohammad Peyrovi, Assistant Secretary-General.

3. The Secretary-General announced that the quorum for the Council was attained (at least 24 Member Parliaments) with the participation of 32 Member Parliaments and absence of 15 Member Parliaments. (List of names and designations of the members of participating delegations are attached as Annex No 1).

4. His Excellency Guy Nzouba Ndama, President of the Council, delivered a speech in which he welcomed the attendees and expressed thanks to His Excellency Prof. Bulent Arinc, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, for hosting this Meeting in Istanbul.

His Excellency began his speech with reference to the passing away of a Council Member and Guinean Member of Parliament as well as the passing away of the Speaker of the Senate of the Gabonese Parliament. He requested a moment’s silence in homage of their demise.

5. His Excellency the President of the Council requested the Meeting to consider the Agenda and the Program of Work of the 8^th Session whose drafts were prepared by the 13^th Meeting and the 14^th Meeting of the Executive Committee after updating them. The Council adopted the two amended documents following their discussion and the addition of a number of items thereto at the request of some Member Parliaments (Annexes 2 and 3).

6. His Excellency the President of the Council invited the Secretary-General to present his report to the PUIC Council. The Secretary-General stated that this report covers the period between the Meeting of the 7^th Session of the august Council in Beirut on 9 – 10 February 2005 and the present time.

7. The Secretary – General mentioned that this report did not address the activities of the Union and its General Secretariat relating to the political field, the participation in parliamentary and international conferences, delivering of speeches on behalf of the Union and interviews with some important personalities, as these have been stated in detail in the first chapter of the report of the Secretary- General submitted to the Fourth Session of the PUIC Conference in Istanbul on 12 – 13 April 2006.

8. Concerning organizational affairs, the Secretary-General referred to the decision of the PUIC Council in Beirut to establish three Standing Specialized Committees as follows:

9. The Secretary- General mentioned that the 13^thMeeting of the PUIC Executive Committee in Tehran on 20 – 21 November 2005 drew up the details of the formation of these committees and the organization of their meetings. Then the 14^th Meeting of the Executive Committee in Istanbul on 8-9 April 2006 increased the number of the representatives of each geographic group at each one of these committees to four members.

10. The Secretary-General highlighted the fact that the numerous nominations necessitated consensus thereon by the three geographic groups had prompted the General Secretariat for the first time to organize three consultative meetings for the three groups on Tuesday 11 April 2006 from 10 a.m. to 13 p.m. He made it clear that the most important nominations involve the selection by the Arab Group of the new President for the Fifth Session of the PUIC Conference and the selection of a new President of the 9^th Session of the Council by the Asian Group as well as the consensus on the selection of two members for them in the new Executive Committee for the next two years and the consensus on the selection of four representatives for each geographic group to each one of the aforementioned Standing Specialized Committees. He explained that the General Secretariat has prepared for each regional group an agenda for its consultative meetings requesting them to report the results of their consensus promptly to the General – Secretariat in order to save the time and the effort of the Fourth Session of the PUIC Conference.

11- The Secretary-General referred to the cooperation between the PUIC and the I.A.O., contained in his report, within the framework of the dialogue and openness between civilizations, explaining that the Executive Committee, in its Fourteenth Meeting held in Istanbul, decided to withdraw this subject from the Agenda of the Eighth Session of the Council and the Fourth Session of the Conference, and commissioned the Secretary General to send a letter to the I.A.O. President and Secretary-General to confirm their invitation to participate in the Fourth Session of the Conference in their capacity as guests and address the Plenary, and to postpone the signing of the Draft Cooperation Agreement between the two organizations.

12- The Secretary General stated that contacts are still in progress between the Secretariat- General, and the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Islamic Shoora (Consultative) Assembly to sign the Headquarters Agreement, and expressed hope that the Agreement would be finalized soon.

13- The Secretary General extended thanks to the Speaker of the Islamic Shoora (Consultative) Assembly of Iran who, in an official letter, responded to the offices of the Secretary General as regards determining the legal status of the PUIC building and the furniture and the office equipment therein. The letter stated that the premises occupied by the headquarters will remain at the disposal of the Secretariat General of the PUIC gratuitously so long the two parties so desired. Moreover, the Assembly donated all the furniture and office equipment that it had previously provided, to become the property of the PUIC Secretariat General, which intends to include all of them in its Register of Fixed Assets.

14- The Secretary-General requested the Council to drop his request of temporary borrowing from the General Reserve (Item 4-7 of the Agenda of the Council) after the initiative taken by a number of the Member Parliaments to pay their annual contributions to the PUIC Budget for the fiscal year 2006 without being so requested by the Secretariat General and before the Council of the PUIC approves it. The Secretary General indicated that payment have been in the following order; the Omani Consultative Assembly (Majlis A’shura), the Saudi Consultative Council, the National Assembly of Kuwait, the National Assembly of Sudan, the Parliament of Mozambique, and the Guinean National Assembly (payment of part of its arrears).

15- Upon reviewing the financial affairs by the Secretary General, an extensive discussion took place on the proposal submitted by the Committee of Seven on the parity of emoluments of the PUIC personnel with their counterparts in the OIC Secretariat General and its assignment to the Secretary General to submit study in this respect. The Council decided to reassign the Committee of Seven to further study the issue and submit its recommendations to the coming meeting of the Executive Committee, then to the coming Session of the Council of the PUIC to consider the adoption of an appropriate decision in this respect in such a manner that adheres to the Rules of Procedures. Meanwhile, the speakers sympathized, from the objective perspective, with the PUIC personnel. (Item 4-6 of the Council Agenda)

Adoption of the two Reports and their Annexes of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Meetings of the Executive Committee

16- The President mentioned that the Member Parliaments had received the Report of the Executive Committee on the Thirteenth Meeting, held in Tehran, November 2005, and had enough time to study it. The President requested the Secretary General to review the Report of the Executive Committee on its Fourteenth Meeting, held in Istanbul, 8-9 April 2006. The Secretary General indicated that the Committee was held in full quorum under the Ex-Officio’ presidency of His Excellency Guy Nzouba Ndama, and elected two vice-presidents: from Algeria representing the Arab Group, and from Iran representing the Asian Group. The Secretary General stated that he had received a message from His Excellency the Ambassador of Iraq in Ankara, to the effect of authorizing the latter by his government to head the delegation of Iraq to the Fourth Session of the Conference, and that the Committee recommended to the Conference to accept this Iraqi non-parliamentary delegation in the capacity of a guest and allow it to deliver its speech before the Conference. The Council supported this recommendation and requested its submission to the Fourth Conference.

17. The Secretary-General underlined that the Executive Committee discussed extensively the question of the Situation in Cyprus in the light of the correspondence received by the General Secretariat from the Representative of the Turkish people of Cyprus and from His Excellency the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The Committee decided to add this subject to the Agenda of the Council in preparation for its submission to the Conference. The Committee recommended to call the Islamic States to strengthen their political, economic and touristic relations with the Turkish Cypriots as well as adopt a decision to replace the name of the “Turkish People of Cyprus” by the “Turkish Cypriot State” which enjoys observer status at the PUIC.

18. The Secretary-General concluded by stating that the Executive Committee decided to add a large member of political, economic and cultural items to the agendas of the Eight Council and the Fourth Conference included in these two documents relating to: the suffering of the Palestinian people; writing off the debts of economically hard-pressed Islamic States; Islamophobia; the Turkish Muslim minority living in Western Thrace in Greece; the adverse consequences of Western double-standard policy; supporting the rights of all nations to modern technologies and energy for peaceful purposes; the problem of Darfur in the Sudan; and assisting Somalia and the Horn of Africa in order to face drought. The Committee also agreed to attach to its report the aide-memoir submitted by the Representative of Cameroon relating to the border dispute with Nigeria.

19. The Council adopted both the above-mentioned reports of the 13^th and 14^th Meetings of the Executive Committee as well as their Annexes.

Adoption of the Report of the FCC on closing the accounts of the financial year 2004

20. H.E. the President requested the Secretary General to review the report of the Financial Control Committee (FCC) concerning the final accounts of the Union for the financial year 2004. The Secretary General mentioned that the FCC, composed of a delegate from the House of Representatives of Bahrain and a delegate from the Lebanese House of Representatives, adopted the accounts of the General Secretariat and the report of the External Auditor together with a recommendation to the 8^th Session of the PUIC Council to consider approving its reports on the accounts for the financial year 2004, pursuant to Article (17) of the PUIC Financial Regulations. The Council decided to approve the mentioned FCC report and absolve the Secretary General of the financial responsibility for the year 2004.

21. The Secretary General reviewed the most important figures of the proposed budget for the financial year 2006 stating that in total it is equal to the PUIC budgets for the previous years (US$.1,127,932) while transferring figures of some items in accordance with the actual needs of work. A member of delegations enquired about these items. The Financial officer of the Union participated in answering these enquiries. The Council then approved the Estimated Budget as submitted for the fiscal year 2006 and requested the General Secretariat to attach, in future, the figures of the Estimated Budget to a comparative analytical report prepared by the Financial Officer at the General Secretariat.

22. His Excellency the President requested that the Secretary-General review the financial situation of the General Secretariat for the year 2005, making it clear that the subscriptions actually collected did not exceed 81.25% of the proposed budget, and that the total on the four budget chapters represents 96% of the contributions expenditure made during 2005. His Excellency added that closing the final account by the Financial Officer of the Union has taken place in March 2006, and that the Iranian external auditing office has been assigned to examine these accounts having been approved by the 8^th Council in May 2006. Furthermore the Financial Control Committee that the Council appoints its two members will be invited to meet at the General Secretariat Premises in Tehran in June 2006 to eventually submit its report to the 9^th Session of the PUIC Council, God willing.

23. The Council held brief consultations after which it agreed to choose the Moroccan Parliament and the Mali National Assembly as two Members in the Financial Control Committee for 2005 and 2006, naming Auditor Al Swalhi Buzekri, Deputy Speaker of the Moroccan Council of Counselors and Mr. Baba Oumar Bore Third Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Mali. The Secretary-General welcomed the two esteemed members of the Financial Control Committee, outlining that invitation will be extended to both of them to hold the Committee meeting at the General Secretariat premises in Tehran during June 2006. He pointed out that the Financial Regulations requires that the parliament delegating each of the two members will bear travel and

accommodation expenses and that practical considerations in Tehran necessitates using the English language only in account-keeping, however the General Secretariat will take care to provide a translator to facilitate the Committee’s mission.

Determining fees of the Iranian external audit office to audit the Union’s accounts for the fiscal year 2005

24. The Council agreed to authorize the Secretary General to pay the fees of the Iranian external audit office to audit the Unions accounts for the fiscal year 2005 within the limit of $ 3000.

25. The Secretary-General at the President’s request reviewed the recommendation of the Union’s Executive Committee in its report on the 13^th Meeting in Tehran on 20 -21 November 2005, regarding Member Parliaments which defaulted on payment of their contributions to the PUIC budget for five years.

26. A discussion on the budget took place in the Council involving opposing considerations governing this difficult issue as Article 10 of the Financial Regulations of the PUIC include progressive sanctions that could amount to the suspension of membership upon a five-year default on payment, on one hand; whereas the difficult circumstances experienced by these defaulting Members as well as the interest in supporting solidarity among the PUIC member states renders it hard to hastily execute sanctions on the other hand.

27.2. To mandate neighboring countries to contact the above mentioned states and the General Secretariat to keep up its contacts in this concern with a view to persuading these states to begin energizing their participation in the activities of the Union and urging them at a later stage to pay their contributions after their scheduling;

27.3. To refer the matter to the forthcoming Executive Committee meeting to follow up these contacts;

28. The Secretary-General pointed to the effective position of the Pakistani Parliament as a founding member of the Union and the first President of its Council, while recalling the hosting by Islamabad of the 2^nd Meeting of the Executive Committee besides its considerable weight as a big state in the Islamic world. His Excellency noted that the cessation of parliamentary life in Pakistan during 2000, 2001 and 2002 prevented requesting payment of its annual share pending the resumption of parliamentary life as of 2003 and beyond when Pakistan requested from the General Secretariat its exemption from the payment of its contributions for these three years based on the cessation of Parliamentary life during that period; and that the 13^thExecutive Committee Meeting recommended to the PUIC Council to positively respond to the request of Pakistan to be exempted from payment of their contributions for these three years. Meanwhile, Pakistan had actually paid its share in the budget for the years 2003 and 2004 and promised to continue paying its contributions for the years 2005 and 2006. The Council decided to approve the recommendation of the Executive Committee. His Excellency the Representative of Pakistan expressed his thanks to the Council for this decision as well as for the condolences and the support lent to Pakistan from the Union and the Islamic states during the recent earthquake disaster.

29. The Council approved the addition of all items recommended by the Executive Committee to be included in the Draft Agenda of the Fourth Session of the Conference. It also approved the addition new items proposed during the Session concerning the following:

29.2. The problem of Nagorno-Karabakh (at the request of the Azerbaijan delegation)

29.4. The border dispute between the Cameroon and Nigeria under consideration by the International Court of Justice (at the request of the Cameroonian delegation)

30. The Council resumed its proceedings the following day evening by reviewing the report of its 8^th Session. Some Members expressed a number of observations which the General Secretariat has promised to include in the report. The Council then adopted the report and the draft agenda of the Fourth Session of the Conference after the introduction of requested amendments and additions. It assigned the Secretary-General to submit the report and its annexes to the Fourth Session of the Conference scheduled to be held in Istanbul on 12 – 13 April 2006.

31. The Council approved by applause the nomination submitted by the Asian Group of His Excellency Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib Speaker of the Parliament of Malaysia to preside over the 9^th Session of the PUIC Council. It felicitated the new President and thanked him for hosting the forthcoming Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in 2007, voicing resolve to pursue action under his presidency towards the realization of more objectives of the Union in the service of Islamic Umma and its just causes.

32. The President gave the floor to the General Secretariat to read out the text of the attached message (Annex No. 5) received from H.E. Dr. Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran where he pointed to the intention of a member of the Dutch Parliament to produce a film hostile to Islam called (Submitted) which includes abuse of Islamic Sanctities. The speaker requested the Secretary General to report this to Their Excellences speakers of Islamic Member Parliaments and to ascertain that appropriate measures will be taken to deal with this matter.

The Secretary General made it clear that he had earlier taken the initiative of issuing a statement condemning abusive caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH). Item 25 has been included in the Agenda of the Fourth Session of the PUIC Conference on Islamphobia and the contribution of Islamic Parliaments to confronting the Campaign insulting to Islam and the noble Prophet (PBUH). He proposed to the august Council to report the Iranian message regarding the Dutch film to the Drafting Committee of the Conference to take it into consideration when preparing appropriate decisions which will be adopted by the Conference to this effect.

33. H.E. the President announced that the African Consultative Group decided today to hold a meeting a meeting in Gabon with the effective participation of the General Secretariat to which the African states will be invited to urge them to energize their participation in the PUIC meetings and to pay their contributions and arrears in its budget.

34. A number of delegates expressed their thanks to the host state, Turkey, and their appreciation of His Excellency the President of the Council for his wisdom in steering its sessions which greatly contributed to the success of their proceedings. They also thanked the Secretary General, his Assistant and Secretariat Staff for their favorable efforts.

35. His Excellency the President delivered a speech in which he expressed his appreciation for the cooperation of the honorable Members of the Council wishing every success to the Fourth Session of the PUIC Conference, and invited the reciter to recite some verses from the Holy Quran after which His Excellency declared the 8^th Session of the PUIC Council adjourned.