Hey, Obama didn’t mention us, notes Pakistani media

ISLAMABAD - Barack Obama’s four-day India visit hogged media space here Sunday with a daily highlighting that the US president didn’t mention Pakistan during his speech at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel while talking about the 26/11 terror attack.

Daily Jang and The News, like other Pakistani papers, highlighted on the front page that “Obama had not mentioned Pakistan during his speech at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel while talking about the 26/11 tragedy”.

“It should be seen as a clear gesture that America is not looking to promote ties with India at the cost of Pakistan,” wrote the Jang.

Daily Express, quoting foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit, said “Obama is expected to speak about Kashmir dispute during the three-day visit… We should hope that his intervention could help in bringing peace to the valley.”

Another story in the daily said that “Obama used Pakistani air space to travel to India”.

“The US administration had conveyed to Islamabad that Obama could make a brief stop-over at Chaklala airbase as a goodwill gesture. However, the security officials from Pakistan and US did not give the clearance for this plan after thorough discussion,” the report claimed.

On Friday, rumours were rife that Obama will stop at Chaklala airbase near Islamabad and will hold a brief meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. It did not prove to be the case eventually but unusual security arrangements were made at the airbase.

Nawa-i-Waqt gave special display on the front page to the activities of President Obama and his wife Michelle.

“The visit has more undertones of promoting American businesses in India rather than resolving the differences in the region,” the daily stated.

“The US President and first lady danced to the tune of Indians,” it added while referring to their dance moves during a Diwali function.

“Obama unveils major deals on job fair’ visit to India”, said the front-page headline of daily Dawn.

The newspaper also gave considerable display to Pakistan’s ambassador in US Hussain Haqqani’s statement that the “visit was an opportunity to highlight Kashmir and other issues with the Indian administration”.

Barack Obama is the sixth US President to visit India and the first who is not visiting Pakistan during the same trip.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)