Cameron calling

One of the prime objectives of UK premier David Cameron on his brief but hectic trip to Islamabad appears to have been to ensure that the wounds caused by his barbed remarks in India in the summer of last year, when he suggested Pakistan was not doing enough to tackle terrorism, received some healing balm. Cameron as such made it a point to stress that the time had come to make a fresh start and assiduously steered clear of most controversial matters during his detailed dialogue with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and a briefer meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari. The British prime minister, on his first visit to Pakisan, refused for instance to be drawn into the complexities of the India-Pakistan relationship, suggesting only that there may be advantage in moving beyond cricket diplomacy. It is possible that the Indo-Pakistan issue, as well as that of terrorism, may have been taken up during meetings between the military and intelligence heads of both countries.

Cameron, however, mixed a soft approach with some pointed comments. While, on the one hand, he made a promise to give aid worth £650 million for education in Pakistan, he also told university students that it was becoming harder and harder to justify such assistance to Pakistan when the country’s wealthiest citizens continued to escape taxation and there were concerns in the UK about the quality of governance. Almost identical remarks have been made by US and World Bank officials. This is obviously then an issue Pakistan needs to think very hard about. The message that it must do more to help itself is coming in from everywhere. David Cameron’s visit counts as a success; a mending of ties with London has taken place and an agreement reached to expand trade ties. But, at the same time, Islamabad also needs to take heed of the polite warnings issued — and remember that if it does not heed them a time may come when no one is willing to come to its aid and the pressure on it from various directions may increase substantially, putting it at risk of isolation from the global community.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2011.