ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will embark on an official trip to Switzerland on January 27, a five-day junket that looks more like a taxpayer-funded family vacation at a time the country and most of the world economies are facing a deep recession.
The justification for the visit essentially stems from the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of global business and political leaders in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. The five-day event, opening on January 28, will be attended by no more than eight or 10 heads of state and government.
Scheduled to leave for Switzerland on January 27, Gilani will return home on January 31. He will be travelling on a commercial PIA flight, making a ‘technical stopover’ in London, where two of his sons are studying.
The Prime Minister House sources told The News on Sunday that Gilani was to be accompanied by the Punjab governor and his wife according to the initial plan. But the governor has now dropped out. Mrs Gilani would stay in Zurich along with her children to enjoy shopping as well as sight-seeing, the sources revealed.
While the sources maintained the entourage would comprise around 50 people, PM’s Press Secretary Imran Gardezi, when contacted by The News, put the number at 26. He, however, remained non-committal on the number of family members accompanying the prime minister, saying the programme was still evolving.
Also part of the high-profile junket, from which ostensibly nothing substantive can result, will be five federal cabinet members, including Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim and ministers for finance, privatisation and investment. From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there will be two officials — the foreign secretary and an additional foreign secretary — apart from a protocol officer. Since this is not a bilateral visit, the host government will not be extending any hospitality other than a car for Gilani.
Hence, all costs will be borne by the Pakistani taxpayers and that too at a time when the prime minister himself has been urging the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ to assist his country in overcoming its financial crisis. When this question was put to Gardezi, there was no firm word from him and he merely hazarded a guess that hospitality might be extended to three or four members of the delegation.
But Gardezi, who disagreed with the view that the prime minister’s visit would be a junket at the taxpayers’ expense, asserted that the event was an important multilateral forum and Pakistan’s participation would enhance its international image.
When specifically asked what would be achieved from the trip, Gardezi replied that there would be a Pakistan-specific session at Davos and the prime minister would address an influential audience there.
“Pakistan will be able to highlight its position on key issues and challenges confronting the country. Also, the forum will provide (him) an opportunity to meet many world leaders and to interact with business leaders, NGO representatives and international media,” he said.
There has been growing criticism of Gilani’s high-cost foreign visits. Last month, the issue also echoed in the National Assembly, where Bushra Gohar sought details of the prime minister’s official visits abroad. The foreign minister told the House that from March to August 2008, the prime minister had visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UK, US and Sri Lanka, which had cost the national exchequer Rs 78.7 million.
While Pakistan got a US $7.6 billion financial bailout from the IMF last year, officials at the Finance Ministry said it would require another $4 billion by June 2009. For the supposedly cash-starved government, it promises no concrete gains, according to watchers of the WEF.
Diplomats claim no important bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the forum have been confirmed so far. Reportedly, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not be going to Davos. So, this puts an end to speculation and media hype about a crucial ice-breaking meeting between the leaders of the two estranged South Asian nations.
There are indications Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who will be present at the forum, will exploit the opportunity to malign Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks.
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