ISLAMABAD, July 31: The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) has described the prime minister’s four-day visit to the United States as the most mismanaged foreign tour by any Pakistani head of government and said it had been marred by administrative incompetence and lack of coordination between the ministries of information and foreign affairs.

“This incompetence has embarrassed Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and it seems that such ineptitude has become the hallmark of the PPP regime as was seen in the prime minister’s address to the nation on July 19,” the party’s secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed said at a press conference at the PML House on Thursday.

PML-Q information secretary Tariq Azeem and finance secretary Imtiaz Ranjha Mr. Sayed also attended the press conference.

Mr Hussain said the prime minister’s visit made without a mandate from parliament on the crucial issue of counter-terrorism had weakened his position. He said that on July 15 his party had urged the prime minister to convene a joint session of parliament before the visit to secure full backing of legislators and political parties.

He said it was disgusting that during the visit neither the prime minister nor any member of his delegation had the courage to condemn the US attack on South Waziristan in which seven people were killed.

He said Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, instead of defending the country’s policies, had adopted an indifferent attitude by interpreting the US president’s angry remarks against the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Mr Hussain said the 10-year US aid programme had been initiated in January this year and had nothing to with the prime minister’s visit.

He said the nation was dismayed over the extreme weakness and sense of fear demonstrated in talks with the American authorities.

He urged the prime minister to convene a joint session of parliament to discuss the outcome of his visit.

A fact-sheet on the visit was released at the press conference. It condemned the ISI notification issued on the eve of the prime minister’s visit to Washington, overshadowing the visit and government’s failure to oppose the India-US nuclear deal under pressure.

It said that six of 13 members of the PM’s official media team had been denied American visa and offloaded at the Islamabad airport an hour before the departure.

It criticised the delay in the landing of the prime minister’s plane at Heathrow and said that no Pakistani official was at the airport to receive him.

The fact-sheet said that no official of the British government had greed to meet the prime minister in London nor had he found time to leave his hotel to meet the Pakistani community.

“The PPP regime has an apologetic and defensive attitude on handling relations with the United States repeating American allegations without rebutting them,” it added.