The provincial capital has become a centre of attention for foreign diplomats who are making frequent visits to meet ‘persons of importance’ including the incumbent chief executive, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The recent and sudden inflow of ambassadors in the metropolitan has raised many eyebrows turning the metropolitan into the new “Islamabad” considering the high-level movement that has been noticed. Turkish diplomats have been an addition to the usual visitors from United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) this time around. In the past, all such “high-level” meetings were held in the federal capital but the focus seems to have shifted, with movement being noticed in Lahore.
The trend is indicative of the fact that global powers are concerned about their “interests” right ahead of the historic shift of power from one civilian regime to another. Interestingly, diplomats are meeting representatives of not just a single party, and the trend is to meet not only those who remained in power for the last five years but also new entrants such as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).
Politicians observing the shift have termed it as a “positive development”.
Senator Pervaiz Rasheed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said gone are the days of “one-window operation” when foreign diplomats had to meet only one man in Islamabad. Now a civilian regime has been in power and another civilian set-up will assume power after the upcoming general elections. “Politicians, whichever political party they belong to, are more patriotic than any other claimant and will look after the country’s interest better than anyone before them,” Rasheed said. Responding to a question, he said the region had become very important with the world’s most powerful countries stationed in our backyard that have “interests” they need to secure and share with politicians. “There is no foreign conspiracy but a positive shift that now the foreign diplomats have to come to the doorsteps of politicians instead of the previous trend of meeting a single man and getting documents signed,” he added.
Another senior bureaucrat privy to the developments revealed that every country has different interests and as part of their routine job, they have to report a roundup of their meetings on any such developments back to their respective governments. The Turkish, for example, have their investments in the province and they would want them secured not only during the interim set up but even afterwards. “Like our own foreign office, every ambassador wants to be in line with its country’s own foreign policy guidelines and hence it should only be taken as a routine practice,” he added.
PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood said diplomats always keep connections with political parties, general public and the civil society. “This is not something which is unusual. We should not be paranoid of such small developments by terming them a threat to national security,” he added.