Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will be in New York in the third week of September for a United Nations General Assembly session and the Pakistan government wants to use this opportunity to break a months-old ‘impasse’ that has continued to cast a shadow on its relations with the US since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2.
Diplomatic sources have confirmed that Pakistan’s embassy in Washington is making hectic efforts to push for a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Gilani. The White House, however, is not interested in such a meeting – a growing sign of its apparent displeasure over steps that Pakistan took following the Bin Laden killing, sources said.
“At the moment I can confirm that Secretary Clinton will have a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani,” a Pakistani diplomat posted in Washington told The Express Tribune.
“The White House has not agreed for a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Gilani,” said the diplomat, who requested anonymity. “But we haven’t yet given up.”
The two leaders met last in April 2010 at the sidelines of a nuclear summit when Gilani was amongst a handful of heads of states President Obama opted to meet separately.
Officials said Washington is also keen to break the ‘status quo’ but is pushing Islamabad to take certain measures before ties between the two sides are brought back on track.
The recent visit by former US presidential candidate and senior Republican Senator John McCain and a telephone call by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar were part of efforts from the two sides to move beyond the Bin Laden episode.
In one such sign, the US has confirmed that a row over the movement of its diplomats has been resolved. This breakthrough was achieved after a recent meeting between US envoy Cameron Munter with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who sought the army chief’s intervention to ease restrictions on diplomats which were imposed after the Bin Laden debacle in an effort to seek greater scrutiny of the Central Intelligence Agency operatives in Pakistan.
A foreign ministry official said that the differences between Islamabad and Washington are of serious nature but what is more alarming is the prevailing ‘inertia’ on the political side in the two capitals.
“This is why we are seeking a meeting with the US president,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd, 2011.
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Isn't Gilani Head of Gov't, not Head of State?
When will our rulers learns that self respect is more important than a hand shake with "Imperialist in Chief" of the world? Frankly what good is going to come out of this meeting except Obama would use it put Pakistan on the spot by repeating the same old tired lines on terrorism and need to do more. I wish there were some sane people around our PM who could advise Mr. Gilani that meeting with Obama is not an end of the world.
Why bother? Will the Pakistan Govt actually start doing the things it needs to do? Like taking on the mullahs and actually putting an end to the Taliban's ever-growing encroachment? Or actually clamping down on loonies like JuD and Lashkar Jhangvi? Or starting to clean up its own corrupt mess? Obviously not. So why would Obama want to meet the idiot who claims to run Pakistan?
There goes Pakistan's national pride, essentially begging the country, which most Pakistanis and their officialdom supposedly detest, for a summit-level meeting. It is bewildering to note the level of anti-Americanism in Pakistan, yet Pakistanis talk about the US all the time. Read the papers and most contain discussions ad nauseam on souring Pakistan-US relations. Watch TV and many of the talking heads give their two-cents' advice on how to deal with the US. Listen to politicians bitterly criticize the US only to discover that their children are studying in Ivy League schools, if not working there or running businesses. Listen to them politicians lambaste the US and see them head for the exits to take a "much-needed" break in the US, shopping for designers clothes and, perhaps, bags. Ever wonder why each official trip to the US would take Pakistan a planeload of delegates? Indeed, we have earned ourselves the unenviable reputation of being two-faced. Perhpas, this is one instance.
No country has given as much money and aid and development assistance to Pakistan as America has. And yet, we ungrateful, brainwashed people bash it at every instance. It's time the two countries came close once again - the last time when we were TRUE allies, the 1960's, Pakistan became the fastest growing economy in Asia! I hope our leaders, the politicians, and the childish army generals can understand this and move to better relations with the U.S. Regards, Rehan
begging USA for everything is awful..