Pakistan 'hurt' over PM remarks
2010-08-02 12:10
Islamabad – The Pakistani government on Monday summoned Britain's high commissioner to Islamabad, threatening to deepen a diplomatic row over remarks made by the British prime minister on the export of terror.
Relations between London and Islamabad soured last week when David Cameron said Pakistan could not be permitted to "look both ways" in promoting the export of terror while publicly working for stability in the region.
That the remarks were made in arch-rival India made the pill all the more bitter for Pakistan, where domestic pressure has been mounting on President Asif Ali Zardari to cancel talks with Cameron at his country retreat this week.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hauled top envoy Adam Thomson into talks, officials said.
"The British high commissioner was summoned to foreign office today. He is in a meeting with the foreign minister," a Pakistani foreign ministry official told AFP, saying details will be issued later in a statement.
Cameron’s remarks
The British high commission confirmed the meeting.
"It's a meeting at the request of the foreign minister to discuss the prime minister's remarks," a spokesperson told AFP.
In Bangalore on Wednesday, Cameron said: "We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country (Pakistan) is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror."
He spoke after the leak of more than 90 000 secret US files which detailed alleged links between Pakistan's intelligence services and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, long a source of concern in the West.
Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked bombers have killed more than 3 500 people in a three-year campaign of attacks across Pakistan, which says it is a victim of terrorism as much as any other country.
Major campaigns
Pakistan's military also led major campaigns against homegrown Taliban in South Waziristan and the Swat valley last year, earning plaudits from the West.
But the New York Times said some 92 000 classified documents released by the WikiLeaks website showed Pakistani agents and Taliban met "in secret strategy sessions to organise networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders".
When asked on BBC radio whether the row would be put to rest when Zardari visits Britain, Pakistan's Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said "hopefully" and that he would talk to Cameron directly on the matter.
Pakistan as a country felt "hurt" over Cameron's comments, he said.
Newspapers in Pakistan have lashed out against Cameron, but comment was muted by twin tragedies of Pakistan's worst aviation disaster that killed 152 people on Wednesday and floods that have killed 1 200.
Words will not suffice
English-language newspaper The Nation called on Zardari to cancel his visit to Britain, saying "mere words will not suffice as the British have simply gone too far and at the very least some symbolic action is required".
Zardari is scheduled to hold a summit with Cameron at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat on Friday, during a three-day visit to Britain.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) pulled out of a visit to discuss counter-terrorism co-operation with British security services.
David Miliband, Britain's former foreign minister, also criticised Cameron, writing in The Independent on Sunday newspaper: "It would have been better for the prime minister to talk about ways we can support Pakistan."
