British prime minister's terrorism allegations anger Pakistan
Jamie Munn, 2 August 2010

The Pakistani government has summoned British officials in Islamabad for talks, following controversial comments from British Prime Minister David Cameron, whilst on a visit to India last week. The suggestions from Cameron that Pakistan was not doing enough to combat the export of terrorism were met with anger by both officials in Islamabad and protestors on the streets of Pakistani cities.

Officials from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have already cancelled a planned trip to the UK, where counter-terrorism tactics were due to be discussed, and the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, is under increasing domestic pressure to do the same. Zardari is due to meet with Cameron at Chequers – the British prime minister’s official country residence – on Friday, followed by a political rally for his supporters within Britain’s one-million-strong Pakistani community. A statement from Pakistan’s information minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, indicated that Zardari will also aim to correct Cameron’s “misinterpretation” of the country’s fight against terrorism.

A spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office confirmed that “the British high commissioner to Pakistan is meeting this morning with the [Pakistani] foreign minister, at the request of the ministry of foreign affairs." Images of a burning effigy of Cameron have received widespread attention in the British media.

Cameron’s said in a speech that "We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world." The fact that the comments were made in India, Pakistan’s historic rival, are also seen as antagonistic, and British officials are now trying to ensure that relations between the UK and Pakistan and not harmed. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistani envoy in Britain, has tried to dissuade British Pakistanis from demonstrating against the comments prior to Zardari’s visit.

The remarks came less than a week after US documents on the war in Afghanistan linking Pakistani agents to Taliban officials were leaked by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. Islamabad denied the accusations, saying that Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism than any other country; more than 3,500 Pakistani civilians have been killed by terrorists over the past three years. Such allegations had already been aired in a recent report from the London School of Economics.

Cameron received further criticism on a visit to Turkey last week over his comments, directed towards Israel, that Gaza had become a “prison”, as well as a remark in America that Britain was the “junior partner” of the US.

The openSecurity verdict: British Prime Minister David Cameron’s open and frank comments over the past couple of weeks have been heralded by some as a ‘new style of diplomacy’. For many, including many British citizens and politicians, they have been viewed as unfortunate and un-diplomatic to say the least. Foreign Office veterans have raised eyebrows, expressed alarm and shuddered in dismay at a series of remarks that are all the more provocative for where they have been said as well as the content. Rebuking Pakistan in India, and Israel in Turkey cannot be described as delicate in the slightest. Pakistan is an important ally of the United Kingdom, both historically, with over one million people of Pakistani descent living in Britain, and strategically; Pakistan is vital to any solution for the conflict in Afghanistan. It carries influence and power within the region, and claims to carry the same anti-Taliban sentiment as the UK and the coalition forces.

The prime minister attacked Pakistan for “looking both ways”, but his own speech is unlikely to resolve difficulties emerging from the undeniable support the Taliban receives from sympathetic Pakistanis. He didn’t acknowledge the role and sacrifices that Pakistan has had in fighting the Taliban, and if President Zardari’s planned visit to London this week doesn’t manage to resolve the issue then any progress – past, present and future – made in Afghanistan may be put at risk; accusations that Pakistan is supportive of the Taliban, should they alienate Pakistan’s elite from the US and UK, could even be self-fulfilling, as the country turns to alternative guardians of its interests in the region other than ISAF forces and the Kabul government.