PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. PHOTO: INP
The Indian foreign minister has said that his country will not send any senior official to attend the oath-taking ceremony of prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif.
“Our High Commissioner (Sharat Sabharwal) will attend the swearing-in, along with the high commissioners from other countries,” Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told journalists on Tuesday.
Khurshid’s statement put to rest earlier reports attributed to sources close to Indian Premier Manmohan Singh that New Delhi might have some political representation at the swearing-in ceremony.
However symbolic, ministerial presence at the ceremony was expected to be New Delhi’s endorsement of a civilian government in Islamabad. It would have been the first time that an Indian minister would have attended the swearing-in ceremony of a Pakistani prime minister.
Khurshid said it was a “local event and that there was no invitation from Pakistan for representation from India”.
The minister also noted that there would “probably be not enough time between the formal election in the National Assembly and the actual swearing-in ceremony to send a delegate.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2013.
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I don't know why Pakistan places so much importance on these pomp and show on these oath-taking- ceremonies.! That it is an Indian endorsement is a silly exaggeration. Even in highly developed and older democracies not much importance is attached to these shows. Sometimes foreign dignitaries like to meet the cabinet members or the head of state just for gauging personalities. In the case of Pakistan, everybody knows about e PM and the members of the cabinet. The nature of th beast is well known. So country like India thinks it is. Waste of time sending a high level dignitary to Pakistan.
Mind you it is different when a head of state DIES when in office. Then there will be some one of importance like Prince Charles to show respect.