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David Cameron visits Islamabad to patch up relations with Pakistan
Prime minister seeks to 'deepen the unbreakable partnership' and plans to announce extra aid for Pakistan
David Cameron visits Islamabad to patch up relations with Pakistan
Prime minister seeks to 'deepen the unbreakable partnership' and plans to announce extra aid for Pakistan
Prime minister seeks to 'deepen the unbreakable partnership' and plans to announce extra aid for Pakistan
David Cameron visits Islamabad to patch up relations with Pakistan
Prime minister seeks to 'deepen the unbreakable partnership' and plans to announce extra aid for Pakistan
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'We want to deepen and enhance the unbreakable partnership between Pakistan and Britain,' David Cameron will tell his hosts in Islamabad. Photograph: Yves Logghe/AP David Cameron is to try to mend relations with the Pakistani government with a lightning visit to Islamabad where he will claim the two countries have "an unbreakable partnership".
He headed to Islamabad for a day of talks after visiting UK fighter pilots enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone from a Nato base in Sicily.
He will hold talks with president Asif Ali Zardari and the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, during his first visit to the country – a trip designed to restore relations after he upset the Pakistani government last July by accusing elements in the country of "facing both ways on terrorism".
Cameron's criticism of Pakistan for promoting the export of terror created such a diplomatic outcry because it was made on a trip to India and because he refused to withdraw his remarks.
He attempted to patch up relations during Zardari's visit to Britain in August, held against the background of Pakistan's floods. The two countries have agreed to hold a strategic dialogue comprising annual discussions between leaders and bi-annual foreign ministers talks.
Zardari has repeatedly warned the west that the battle for hearts and minds over the Taliban's use of Pakistan as the base for its attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan is being lost. He says Cameron has not done enough to recognise how much Pakistan is doing to combat terrorism.
Acknowledging the misunderstandings of the past, Cameron will argue in a speech to students that he wants "a new chapter in the relationship between our two countries. We want to deepen and enhance the unbreakable partnership between Pakistan and Britain. The unbreakable partnership must not just be between our two governments. It must be between our peoples, too".
He will acknowledge "there are challenges that our friendship must overcome", including the subjects of relations with India, national security and questions of governance.
Cameron will call for a fresh start: "It is time for a new step in relations between Britain and Pakistan, and between Britons and Pakistanis."
He wants a "Pakistan that is safe for its citizens, free from the threat of terror on your doorsteps, in your neighbourhoods". He will promise a "Britain that respects your choices; a relationship of mutual trust".
He will draw parallels between the Arab democratic spring and the lawyers' movement in Pakistan, the popular uprising against General Pervez Musharraf when he unconstitutionally sacked the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The Foreign Office's annual human rights report was still highly critical of Pakistan's record, pointing to state efforts to muzzle independent media.
It warned the judicial system was "under-trained, often politicised, corrupt and under-resourced", adding: "The courts currently face a backlog of more than 1m cases. Successful convictions are rare.
"Police investigations are often seriously flawed, based on allegation rather than evidence, and trials cannot be described as either fair or free in many cases, being marked by delay and intimidation."
The Pakistani foreign office dismissed the report as a worthless and skewed document that omitted the "positives" of Pakistani society.
Cameron is expected to announce further aid for education and health. Britain has already announced the doubling of its development aid over the next four years, which will make Pakistan the highest recipient of British aid by 2015, receiving £446m annually.
Cameron, who will also be meeting opposition leaders in Pakistan, is being accompanied by Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, Sir John Sawers, head of the secret intelligence service, Lady Warsi, the leading Muslim politician in the cabinet, and Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff.
The composition of the team underlines the degree to which the trip has a strong security element in light of the fact that as many as 50 terrorist plots in the UK are thought to have originated in Pakistan.
At least four cabinet ministers have visited Pakistan in the last year – a sign of how important the government believes improved relations can be in preventing the threat of terrorist groups operating inside the country or in Afghanistan.
Cameron will be relieved he is arriving at a time of improved Indian-Pakistani relations. Pakistan last week agreed to allow a visit by Indian investigators as part of their inquiry into the 2008 Mumbai militant attacks in a significant confidence building measure between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
