British Prime Minister David Cameron's hectic day-long visit to Islamabad on Tuesday has been described by a UK newspaper as a "diplomatic gamble" to salvage the UK-Pakistan relationship from the deep freeze he had put into by making a highly provocative statement while in India accusing Islamabad of facing 'both ways' in the fight against terror.
We would be reluctant to accept such a description, given that his statements in Islamabad during the visit were too frank to be deceptive. He made every effort to convey that what he had said in the Indian city of Bangalore is in the past and in no way would be allowed to jeopardise his country's treatment of Pakistan to which he promised a "fresh start". But at the same time he made abundantly clear that what he thought of UK-Pakistan relationship is not in the context of any warmth for the present Pakistani political set-up but it is all about the wider relationship between two peoples and two countries.
In no uncertain terms the visiting prime minister criticised the Gilani government of failing to give the people of Pakistan good governance. "You are not raising the resources necessary to pay for things that a modern state and people require.
It's not fair on you, ordinary Pakistanis, who suffer at the sharpest end of this weak governance," he said - mapping out some sort of framework that would govern the 650-million pounds of aid funds more schools, trained teachers and related fields in education. What an irony that David Cameron made this aid commitment as the Gilani government is busy performing funeral rites for the Higher Education Commission whose only fault was its insistence that the commission could not bailout the forgers and fakers of degrees now occupying seats in the legislative houses of Pakistan.
David Cameron was indeed provocative in more than one way. If you are really interested in getting General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) back in Pakistan to face trial for his alleged role, he advised the Pakistan government to make a formal request, extradition treaty or no treaty, and his government would look into it. The burden of his remark tended to suggest that London would be inclined to help the Pakistani court question the former autocrat. This sparks a feeling that if Pakistan government makes such a request the British government would be hard-pressed not to help resolve that mystery as to who did what in the conspiracy leading to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. David Cameron was absolutely right in asserting that the governments of Pakistan and United Kingdom must look at the bilateral relationship in the wider perspective of a million-strong Pakistani presence in his country.
But he had something on his agenda as well and that was Afghanistan - a problem now left for the British political leadership to handle as President Obama commits his full-time attention to his re-election. Of course, nobody would expect David Cameron to be following the footsteps of Tony Blair the then British prime minister but more than a sidekick of George Bush.
The UK would like to completely pull out from Afghanistan by 2015, and for that it would like Pakistan to facilitate its exit by ensuring a peaceful, democratic Afghanistan. At the same time, the Cameron government is of the view that the incidence of terrorism that keeps spurting up in UK has its roots in the wild west of Pak-Afghan border - though the fact cannot be ignored that the actors involved in these incidents are mostly of British nationality. So there was also a meeting in Islamabad between the British team comprising military and intelligence leadership with their Pakistani counterparts under the rubric of 'strategic dialogue'.
Our perception as to what David Cameron offered Pakistan during his visit is not a "diplomatic gamble" would get strength if some of the irritants that an average Pakistani, particularly the students face in getting visas, are removed. Given that the Commerce Ministry was not in the loop at the talks where Prime Minister Cameron and his host interlocutors agreed to raise bilateral trade to 2.5 billion pounds a year by 2015 and that UK would help Pakistan's case for GSP Plus treatment with European Union (EU), one would remain a bit sceptical about this development. But all in all, now that David Cameron has spoken his mind with great clarity and must have heard the Pakistani point of view in real earnestness we hope reality would catch up and create the common space for the two countries to improve their relationship, which of course, undergoes occasional spells of blowing hot and cold.
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