former head of a think-tank funded by our Foreign Office, reported that our top diplomats received verbal "guidance" from a well known Washington-based figure in the Gilani government to stop focusing too much on China and start a new policy of engagement with countries such as India and the United States. This could be a personal opinion or a general policy observation, and all elected governments have the right to review policies. But in China's case, we have accumulated several bad examples recently that the subject merits a special discussion.
In April, Prime Minister Gilani avoided attending the Olympic torch relay ceremony as the torch passed through Islamabad, on the pretext that President Musharraf was also attending. Considering how Western members of the International Olympic Committee refused to include Pakistan in the Olympic torch route and how Beijing stuck to Islamabad, the April 16 incident in the Pakistani capital was certainly a ghastly show of lopsided priorities. And then on Aug. 8, Pakistan's participation at the level of president in China's most important event of the century was scuttled because of Pakistani politics. One can be certain that our Chinese friends were not very impressed when we sent to Beijing a prime minister widely seen as "remote-controlled" – as opposed to a "puppet" – and the teenage chairman of the ruling party. It didn't quite give the impression that we attached a lot of importance to an important event for China. Overall, it would be an understatement to say that this has not been a good year so far for Sino-Pakistani ties.
The principals of the Gilani government must excuse the sceptics when things like this happen. After all, the government has shown a lot of enthusiasm in focusing on ties with the United States. Washington was the first real foreign engagement for Prime Minister Gilani. You can discount the Saudi visit. That was limited to a one-point agenda: cheap oil. Certainly the government has shown a lot of interest in hiring the services of an "American enthusiast" to be our ambassador in Washington, followed by appointing the last serving ambassador there as the new national security advisor to the prime minister. This is a government tinged with a heavy American dose. That is fine, since this is an important relationship for Islamabad. But in the process, China should not be sidelined.
The writer works for Geo TV.
Email: aqahmedquraishi.com