Himalayan News Service

Islamabad, May 13

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz faced acute embarrassment during the Singapore leg of his four-nation tour when the city state refused to host his entire 70-member entourage, saying it would treat only 11 as state guests.

“The Singapore government worked on the formula of one-plus-10 (Aziz and 10 others) as state guests. The rest were the burden on the country’s mission in Singapore,” The News reported today. Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Thailand, the other countries on the tour that concluded yesterday, hosted the entire delegation, which included Aziz’s wife Rukhsana, ministers, MPs, officials, businessmen and mediapersons.

This is believed to be the largest-ever delegation that has accompanied Aziz on foreign tours. The businessmen included in the entourage were reportedly told prior to their departure from Islamabad that they would be paying their hotel expenses from their own pockets.

“However, Singapore refused to offer free lunches to more than 11. Because of this not only did the government have to foot the bill of Shangri La Hotel, one of the most expensive in the country, for so many, excluding the businessmen, but also for the long motorcade to facilitate their movement,” The News noted.

There were almost 40 cars in the motorcade in Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand. This was reduced in Singapore by inducting coaches to save money. The newspaper quoted a source in the Pakistani mission in Singapore as saying that “spending on the tour was far beyond their limit.”