ISLAMABAD, 30 October 2006 — Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in Pakistan yesterday amid tight security at the invitation of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
A plane carrying the royal couple touched down at Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, at around 10:45 p.m. (1745 GMT).
Pakistani Women’s Affairs Minister Sumera Malik and British High Commissioner Mark Lyall Grant received the heir to the British throne and Camilla.
Prince Charles during his five-day trip will visit Peshawar, Lahore, Muzaffarabad and Skardu. His visit is being considered politically sensitive because of the planned hanging of a British man. Mirza Tahir Hussain has spent nearly half his life on Pakistan’s death row for murdering a taxi driver Jamshed Khan.
He claimed he acted in self defense after the driver tried to sexually assault him.
However Hussain’s brother, who was due to visit him on death row as the royal couple toured the country, canceled his trip to Islamabad Saturday, saying he did not want to “jeopardize” negotiations.
Officials say the themes of the tour, during which Charles will meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, will be inter-faith communication, education, youth entrepreneurship and development.
“The overall purpose is to highlight the extent of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Pakistan,” which is often reduced in the media to issues such as terrorism and forced marriage, a British official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Charles and Camilla are expected to visit several cities as well as remote northern parts hit by the October 2005 earthquake, in which more than 73,000 people were killed.
The royal couple is expected to visit Peshawar tomorrow where Charles would address the students at the faculty of Edwards College, a government official told AFP. While in Peshawar Charles will also visit a madrasa and the private Dost Foundation, which works for rehabilitation of drug addicts and street children, he said.
