Pakistan's PM hits back at Cameron (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Pakistan's PM hits back at Cameron

3:43am Sunday 1st August 2010 in

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Pakistan's prime minister hit back at David Cameron's claim that elements in the country were "exporting terror", suggesting the remark was particularly galling because it was made during a visit to regional rival India.

Yousaf Raza Gilani said Mr Cameron also failed to mention the situation in Kashmir which has been a source of conflict between Pakistan and India since 1947.

Mr Cameron's comment - made during last week's visit to India - sparked fury in Pakistan whose intelligence agency cancelled talks with British security officials in protest.

On Saturday opposition politicians in Pakistan urged President Asif Ali Zardari to call off his forthcoming visit to the UK, while demonstrators burned an effigy of the Prime Minister on the streets of Karachi.

But Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira insisted that the trip would go ahead as planned, and said the row would not be allowed to undermine political relations or intelligence co-operation between the UK and Pakistan.

Describing Mr Cameron's statement as "a misperception", Mr Kaira said Mr Zardari would use the opportunity to "explain the facts" to the PM during talks at Chequers on Friday.

"If the Prime Minister of the UK has said something that is contrary to the facts on the ground, it doesn't mean that we should boycott each other," said Mr Kaira at a press conference in London.

"The President of Pakistan will explain and have a dialogue and good discussion and he will explain the facts to the new Government over here... We hope that the new management - the new leadership - over here, when they get the exact picture, will agree with us."

Pakistan was currently "the biggest victim of terror" and had lost 2,700 soldiers in military offensives against militants in the north-west frontier area bordering Afghanistan, he said. And he rejected suggestions that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) was covertly backing the Taliban against the will of Mr Zardari's Government.

"The Pakistan intelligence agency is strictly following the policy of the Government of Pakistan and our policy is that we want a peaceful Afghanistan and we believe that without peace in Afghanistan there can't be peace in Pakistan," he said.