President Morsi's historic visit

Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi's one-day visit here augurs well for the people of Pakistan. He is one of the principal products of the Arab Spring, and two years on in the wake of upcoming general election a whiff of scented air is also knocking at the door of Pakistan. Morsi was scheduled to visit Pakistan in November last year to attend the Developing-8 summit, but could not because of some unexpected developments in Cairo. He is the first elected Egyptian head of state to visit Pakistan since Jamal Abdul Nasser's in 1960s.
As appropriately described by Senator Mushahid Hussain, President Morsi's visit is both symbolic and substantive; symbolic because he is set to play a very important role in the Islamic world and in the region. Given that he is one of the new and emerging democratically-elected Muslim leaders, he presents to the Islam-phobic West a workable option in inter-state relationship. His persona sets him apart from his life-long association with the Muslim Brotherhood of which he is still a part, but committed to equally serving all sections of Egyptian society. By electing leaders like Dr Mohammad Morsi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan to lead them, the followers of Islam have told the international community that it has to reframe its attitude towards them so as to cleanse it of its largely misplaced and prejudiced perceptions and perspectives.
From the Pakistani point of view, Dr Morsi's visit is significant in that he chose Islamabad as his first destination in his journey to South Asia. It was rightly said by our Foreign Office that this gesture on his part clearly manifests Egypt's "desire to add a new chapter to its bilateral ties with Pakistan". Of course, at present, the bilateral relationship is lacklustre with not much in terms of bilateral trade and low-key political co-operation at international forums - not only for their matching economies and competitive trade positions as providers of technical manpower but also for the Cairo's high-profile role in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in yesteryears, which did not aptly fit into Pakistan's strategic interests. But that appears to be in the past; now they seem to be increasingly forging identical positions on a number of major international and regional issues. Obviously, Syria and Palestine, the two world's critical issues, topped the agenda of talks President Morsi has with his host, President Asif Ali Zardari. They were profoundly distressed over the "deteriorating humanitarian and security situation and the continuing violence and bloodshed in Syria". And unlike many other governments, both of Muslim countries and rest of the world, the two leaders preferred to pin their hopes on an "all inclusive national dialogue in order to resolve the conflict through political means". This may appear to some an easy way out, but the truth is that victory of the revolutionaries is nowhere in sight yet and the Assad regime shows no sign of relenting even some 60,000 lives have been lost and a million have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.
But the President Morsi's current visit to South Asia - he is also visiting India - is mainly focused on restoring the confidence of investors and foreign lenders, given the fact that Egyptian economy has suffered a sharp decline since the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Quite a big chunk of Western aid and assistance that Egypt was receiving since its ground-breaking recognition of Israel is no more available, though it keeps receiving lip service for overthrowing oppressive military regime. May be Morsi's past as member of the Muslim Brotherhood still rankled with the minds of some aid-providers who wait for an amenable substitution. The signing of five MoUs and an Executive Programme for Scientific and Technological Co-operation for years 2013-2015 in Islamabad during his visit may hardly make up for that loss, but it does indicate scope and possibility of expanded bilateralism. We hope things would move beyond the ceremonial signing of these instruments. Being essentially people-specific agreements these are expected to intensify people-to-people co-operation, which, hopefully, will over time help strengthen their say in the affairs of the Muslim world. And that what President Morsi had in mind when he expressed his deep desire to cultivate close relations with Pakistan because "Pakistan and Egypt were two pillars of the Islamic World, which have an important role to play for the Ummah and the region".