Clinton’s Pak visit — As of now the only thing pleasant is the weather

“This is the hard part of the visit which has been otherwise quite pleasant,” a highly placed US diplomat told The Indian ExpressIslamabad on Friday.

For his part, Pakistan’s Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf has been given the endorsement earlier this week by the army top brass — the formation and corps commanders, who earlier met at Rawalpindi’s General Headquarters (GHQ) — to talk to Clinton on a wide range of issues.

Musharraf and Clinton will meet for a two-hour meeting in Islamabad during the four-and-half-hour visit of the US President. Clinton is expected to ask for Pakistani guarantees to bring down the temperature at the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir by discouraging militants from crossing the LoC into India.

“This is the first time the US will make a summit-level request with Pakistan on this subject,” says a report in the English language daily, The News

Clinton will be looking at a commitment by the Pakistanis to clamp down on the activities of the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e Toiba and the Hizbul-Mujahideen groups in Pakistan.

Human rights organisations have said that these groups have become more active after the military takeover while the country’s main political parties, the PPP, PML-N and the MQM, have been sidelined as they have demanded a return to democracy.

President Clinton’s reservations over Musharraf’s announcement on Thursday of local body polls by the year end will also weigh heavily on the visit.

Clinton joins a wide chorus of opposition from within Pakistan which say that local body polls are no substitute to democracy in the country.

Another irritant will be the question of Osama bin Laden. This will be viewed in the light of the remarks by the Pakistan foreign minister Abdul Sattar, who told a foreign newspaper on Friday that if America wanted the question of Osama bin Laden addressed, “it should talk directly to the Taliban”.

Security for Clinton’s visit has become a headache for the Musharraf government: most of Islamabad’s working areas, which house government offices and the diplomatic enclave, will remain closed to the public and many offices have declared Saturday, otherwise a working day, a holiday for employees.

The overall responsibility of Clinton’s security lies with the Pakistan Army, which is taking unprecedented measures for his safety. Public demonstrations, gatherings or even walking on roads on which the US President will travel has been disallowed by the city administration.

Clinton is expected to address the Pakistani nation through Pakistan Television, and American officials have insisted that the speech be carried live to avoid any last-minute censoring by Pakistani authorities.

Security officials have said that Clinton will not formally meet the press and “may” have a fleeting visit of the Pakistani capital’s tourist attractions, prior to his departure.