27th May 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
Whatever else Pakistanis may think about India, the evidence of economic growth there is hard to deny. Last week I visted Gurgaon, the new city outside New Delhi. It is mushrooming. Twelve years ago, when I last took a look, it practically wasn’t there. Now it has all the shopping malls, office blocks and building […]
18th May 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
For British citizens the outcome of last week’s General Election has been pretty remarkable. For the first time since the Second World War we have a coalition government. And we have the prospect of some quite substantial constitutional change: legislation to give Parliament a fixed term of five years, a referendum on whether to move […]
7th May 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s National Assembly voted 292 to 0 to amend the country’s Constitution, passing more power from the President to the Prime Minister and from the centre to the provincial governments. The Senate followed suit and the amendment has been signed into law. The change restores the Constitution to something closer to the […]
19th April 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
Many Pakistanis have never heard of the European Union. Still fewer know what it is. But when Prime Minister Gilani met 16 of the European Union’s Ambassadors in Peshawar recently, it was natural for him to do so. The European Union is Pakistan’s largest trading partner (two-way trade was worth €7.5 billion in 2008, approximately […]
26th March 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
In response to an earlier blog of mine someone asked whether I really meant my description of Pakistan as a proud country or whether I was just being polite. I was not just being polite. I meant proud. And proud in ways that diplomats like me need to understand and remember. The celebration of Pakistan […]
9th March 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan
Where better to start a blog about my encounters with this proud country than the presentation of my credentials to the President, Asif Ali Zardari? Credentials are an ancient piece of diplomatic ritual that is half absurd and wholly serious. An Ambassador’s (or, in the case of Commonwealth countries, a High Commissioner’s) credentials are the […]