I don’t know either, but the articles talks about the game!**
Guessing game about size of PM’s entourage to US**
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, July 21: How many people will Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani bring with him when he visits Washington next week — 35, 70 or 170? But even more important than the numbers was the composition of the delegation once reported in the media.
According to these reports, PPP chairman Asif Zardari was also coming with the prime minister and he had also invited former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to accompany him.
The media reports caused a mini-diplomatic crisis in Washington. US officials were seen asking Pakistani journalists if the reports were true.
They said that if Mr Zardari came with the prime minister, it would create an embarrassing situation for President George W. Bush. Everybody in Washington would know who in the Pakistani delegation has the real power.
Yet, Mr Bush and others would be obliged to give full protocol to Mr Gilani, and not to Mr Zardari. Luckily, Mr Zardari got the message and decided not to come. Mr Sharif also is not coming, although he may come later on a private visit.
Now that this diplomatic crisis is over, all attentions are focused on the size of the delegation.
The prime minister and the embassy in Washington would prefer to keep the delegation small. So do the Americans. Nobody wants more than 50 people. But can they keep it small?
** Even when President Pervez Musharraf, who had all the powers he needed to decide who he wanted on the plane, never succeeded in bringing less than 100 people. And Prime Minister Gilani has to listen to others as well.
**
The prime minister is believed to have told his cabinet that he wants only two cabinet members and two advisers with him: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani and, of course, the all-powerful Rehman Malik, the man tasked to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Meanwhile, the prime minister has sent a letter to the embassy, urging them to “maintain austerity” during the visit. He and senior members of his delegation will stay at Willard, a hotel close to the White House.
Others will stay at less expensive places in Washington or nearby Virginia.
**The prime minister also has advised the embassy not to hire limousines and instead use ordinary cars and vans.
**
Will his advised be followed? The signs are that they cannot be implemented even if the PM and the embassy both try to do so.
**Reports coming from Islamabad indicate that other {muft/haram khor} ministers also are interested in coming with the prime minister on his first America ‘yatra’. **And ministers do not travel alone. They bring their staff too.
The information minister brings along the information secretary, one or two directors general, preferably both for external and internal publicity, directors and other officials to brief, debrief and re-brief the media. Information personnel at the embassy in Washington and the mission and consulate at New York also join the media team.
And this is done for obvious reason as it is the media handlers who convince people that every foreign visit by a Pakistani ruler is a great success.
The foreign minister, obviously, brings more people than the information minister. He comes with a host of DGs, directors, deputies and junior officials who are then joined by dozens of others already working in Washington and New York.
The information ministry is learnt to have sent a list of 40 journalists who will be travelling with the prime minister. When the embassy in Washington suggested that 40 were too many, the objection was leaked to the media to expose “the enemies of press freedom”, as an article criticising the move said.
Initially, it was suggested that the media would travel separately and the information ministry would bear their expenses. The prime minister, however, rejected the suggestion and graciously agreed to accommodate the 40 on his plane which was otherwise coming half empty.
The prime minister may have saved the money which was to be spent on fares but there are other expenses that will apparently escape the austerity drive.
Each media, and non-media, member of the delegation will get the daily allowances. The government of Pakistan will also pay the hotel bills. And then there will be a host of media minders who will also have to be paid.
During such visits, the embassy also arranges free international phone for the media which are used by journalists, as well as officials accompanying the delegation, for calling wives, sisters, children and friends in Pakistan and elsewhere.
The austerity drive never covers such expenses.
Guessing game about size of PM’s entourage to US -DAWN - Top Stories; July 22, 2008
