Pakistani President Asif Zardari, arrives for an official visit to the UK today, with a continuing storm back home over British Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments about Pakistani attitudes to terrorism.
The Pakistani government yesterday summoned Britain’s high commissioner to Islamabad over remarks made by Cameron on the export of terror that sparked a diplomatic row, officials said.
“The British high commissioner was summoned to the foreign office today. He is in a meeting with the foreign minister,” a Pakistani foreign ministry official said, saying details would be later issued in a statement.
“We can confirm the high commissioner is meeting foreign minister [Shah Mehmood] Qureshi,” a spokesman for the high commission said.
“It’s a meeting at the request of the foreign minister to discuss the prime minister’s remarks,” the spokesman said.
British officials sought yesterday to play down the significance of the spat, insisting “no long-term damage” had been done by Cameron’s remarks in India last week.
In Pakistan, opposition parties united yesterday in demanding that the trip be canceled; Pakistan’s powerful military establishment has already demonstrated its anger by canceling a visit by a delegation of intelligence officials to the UK.
Zardari will “forcefully take up” the remarks when he meets Cameron, according to Pakistani Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira.
“Any continuation of such a policy stance by the UK government could lead to fissures in the historically sound relationship between the two countries,” Kaira said in London. “But we hope that this will not happen because Pakistan’s stand against terrorism is based on facts evident to everyone.”
Cameron started the storm last week when he said Pakistan could no longer “look both ways” by tolerating terrorism while demanding respect as a democracy.
British officials have denied reports that the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, had canceled a visit to the UK because of the row, saying reports to this effect from Islamabad were based on a “misunderstanding.” However, Pakistan did show its anger by canceling a visit by a delegation of ISI officers to the UK.
Its members were due to hold talks with their opposite numbers from MI6 (UK Secret Service), MI5 (UK Security Service) and GCHQ, British government’s electronic eavesdropping center. A visit to Pakistan by a senior British security figure had also been canceled.
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown said that 75 percent of terrorist plots in the UK had links to Pakistan, though that figure is now said to be down to around 50 percent.
Pakistan’s military is particularly incensed that Cameron chose to make his comments in India, Pakistan’s traditional enemy.
“We are fighting this war with all sincerity,” an ISI official said. “We work with over 50 foreign intelligence agencies but the biggest co-operation is with MI6 and the CIA. Up to now our co-operation [with MI6] has been exemplary.”
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