After cancelling Turkey visit, PM to skip Nato summit in UK

Published September 2, 2014
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. — File photo
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. — File photo
phpwtFZJX
phpwtFZJX

ISLAMABAD: Days after cancelling his visit to Turkey, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has also decided not to proceed to the United Kingdom to attend the Nato summit to be held on September 4 and 5 in the city of Cardiff, diplomatic sources said.

The cancellation comes in the wake of anti-government protests in Islamabad where thousands of protesters led by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri are holding sit-ins across the Red Zone and calling for the premier to resign.

The prime minister was invited to the summit by Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen but with the cancellation, Pakistan will now be represented at the forum by junior diplomats, sources said.

The political crisis in Islamabad also recently led to the cancellation of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to the capital and with the prevailing deadlock, concern prevails whether the Chinese President Xi Jinping will still be able to visit the capital this month.

This year's summit comes as Nato draws down from its longest ever mission in Afghanistan and against a backdrop of instability in Ukraine. US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are expected to attend along with leaders and senior ministers from around 60 other countries.

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...