Wills & Kate dress to impress
FOR Princess Diana, Pakistan was a beloved place she almost made her home, and as her son William began a tour of the country with his wife Kate the people showed how much his mother had meant to them.
The prince stayed cool and statesmanlike as he and Kate met the President and the Prime Minister and graced an elegant Ambassador’s reception.
But at the Islamabad Model College for Girls, amid the highest security ever witnessed on a royal tour, 14-year-old pupil Aima told William how she wanted to be a brain surgeon – and that all the students were “big fans of your mother”.
With that, his statesmanlike poise dropped, just for a moment, as he replied: “Oh, that’s very sweet of you. I was a big fan of my mother too. She came here three times. I was very small.
“This is my first time, and it is very nice to be here and meet you all.”
Diana visited Pakistan in 1991, 1996 and in May 1997, three months before her death.
The 1996 trip was to visit her friend Jemima Goldsmith, who was then married to cricketer Imran Khan, who is now Pakistan’s Prime Minister.
And the official record of William and Kate’s meeting with Mr Khan yesterday said: “Prime Minister Imran Khan recalled the love and affection among the people of Pakistan for Princess Diana, because of her compassion as well as her commitment to support charitable causes.”
The Princess also considered moving to Pakistan during her doomed romance with the surgeon Hasnat Khan.
In a meeting before lunch at the Prime Minister’s official residence, William recalled how everyone laughed at a gathering in Richmond-upon-Thames in 1996 when Mr Khan, who played for Pakistan, Sussex and Worcestershire, had announced his political ambition.
Diana had taken William to see Mr Khan and his then wife, Jemima.
Mr Khan, 67, who became PM in July 2018, said: “When I told you that I wanted to succeed I didn’t realise it would take me 22 years.” William replied: “Sure. It’s not so easy.”
Kate interjected: “You stuck with it.” William and Kate also met Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi, 70, who recalled running along Victoria Road in Karachi to catch a glimpse of the Queen during her 1961 State Visit. He told William: “It was miraculous to see her.”
William and Kate, both 37, arrived at an evening reception at the Pakistan National Monument in the capital Islamabad last night in a three-wheel motorised rickshaw.
William was wearing a traditional sherwani buttoned coat designed by the Pakistani firm Naushemian. Kate was in
The challenges are great but we cannot be daunted PRINCE WILLIAM IN PAKISTAN SPEECH