ISLAMABAD, July 19: President Gen Pervez Musharraf will most likely not meet British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his visit here despite the British government’s best efforts.

Informed sources told Dawn on Friday that Straw was “very keen” to meet the president and had put in a request for a meeting through his High Commission here. The British HC, they said, had made several rounds of all the relevant government offices to seek his meeting with the president but to no avail as yet.

When contacted by Dawn on Friday, Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said he did not have confirmation or details of Straw’s arrival and engagements in Islamabad. The British Foreign Office spokesman had, however, said on Wednesday that Straw would arrive in Islamabad on Saturday (today) and would hold talks with his counterpart Inam-ul Haq. He also said Straw “hopes to meet President Musharraf.”

There was no official confirmation or word about Straw’s meeting with President Musharraf till the filing of this report. However, government sources said the president had been strongly advised against it.

The reason the president may not hold talks with Straw this time could be Islamabad’s disenchantment with British foreign secretary’s biased attitude towards Pakistan, sources said. He is seen as taking a very partisan position on the Indo-Pakistan conflict. His pussy footing on Kashmiris’ right of self-determination and the issue of neutral observers on the LoC is viewed by analysts as Britain’s keenness to sell its weapons to India.

Sources said Straw, who had been appeasing Indians, also made in the recent past some objectionable and undiplomatic statements that displeased Islamabad.

Pakistan has been particularly irked by the British foreign secretary’s one off-the-record offensive remark about President Pervez Musharraf. Apparently, he had made the remark during his last visit to India and it somehow got relayed back to Islamabad.