Islamabad, July 31: ISI chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha has cancelled a scheduled visit to Britain in protest against Prime Minister David Cameron's remarks that Pakistan must stop promoting “export of terror,” though President Asif Ali Zardari will go ahead with a planned trip to London next week.
Pasha was scheduled to travel to Britain with a high-level delegation for talks on anti-terror cooperation in early August but called off his visit in the wake of Cameron's warning to Pakistan to sever links with groups that promote the “export of terror” to Afghanistan and India, media reports said.
Despite a debate within the Foreign Office on the possibility of Zardari calling off his planned visit to Britain, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the President was going ahead with his four-day trip beginning on August 3.
Zardari's engagements in Britain will be held as planned, Babar said.
Diplomatic sources told PTI the decisions made by the ISI and the presidency reflected divisions between the military and civilian leadership on an appropriate reaction to Cameron's stinging remarks, which the British Premier later defended by saying it was “important to speak frankly.”
The Foreign Office and the military were particularly irked that Cameron made the remarks while in India.
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said Pakistan was “saddened” as the remarks were prompted by the disclosure of secret US documents by the WikiLeaks website.
The “malicious campaign” against the ISI cannot “belittle” Pakistan's achievements in the war against terror, he said.
The powerful Pakistan Army conveyed its displeasure after the ISI chief cancelled his upcoming visit to Britain, 'Dawn' newspaper reported.
However, the President's decision to go ahead with his visit revealed the division within the government's ranks as it “struggled... to come up with a unified response” to Cameron's “disparaging” remarks, it said.
The leaders of the ruling Pakistan People's Party “were not just at odds with the military leadership, but also the Foreign Office, led by their party man,” the report said, referring to foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.