Bad feeling is still swirling around in Pakistan following David Cameron’s comments in India last week.

Although it hasn’t aroused much comment in this country, in flood-hit Pakistan the Prime Minister’s remarks have been a burning issue – literally.

Effigies of Mr Cameron were set alight after he suggested that Pakistan was encouraging the promotion of Islamic terrorism abroad.

He said: “We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world.”

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, in Britain this week for an official five-day visit, hopes to correct what he called Mr Cameron’s “misperception”.

Former Bradford Lord Mayor and deputy Labour Group leader Mohammed Ajeeb hopes the two leaders will meet and talk on Friday.

He says: “They need to thrash out any misunderstanding, particularly at a time when we need Pakistan’s help on the issue of terrorism.

“I was speaking to a Pakistani Government official and he said more Pakistani soldiers had sacrificed their lives in the fight against terrorism in the past few years than in the last couple of wars with India.

“If Mr Cameron had made his remarks in the House of Commons or in Pakistan, that might have been a different matter; but he made them in India. I think he said it to appease India because his aim was to improve trade relations.

“Historically, the relationship between India and Pakistan has not been cordial. It is still very fragile. India’s foreign minister was in Pakistan recently. It ended in chaos; there was no agreement and no further talks are planned.”

The political situation on the Indian Sub-Continent is complicated and very dangerous, says Bradford-based political researcher and writer Richard North. “Pakistan and India are both trying to maintain their own security by de-stablising one another in Afghanistan and Kashmir.”

“A stable Afghanistan, not torn apart by tribal rivalries, would be fighting Pakistan. India supports tribal independence in tribal areas of the North West Frontier to keep the Pakistani military off-balance there and in Kashmir. India is a bigger threat to Pakistan than the Taliban. David Cameron should have been cold, clinical and neutral,” he says.

“If, as had been alleged in Wikileaks (the hacked US Afghanistan war logs), Pakistan is financing the Taliban in Afghanistan, it is to keep the Afghan government preoccupied with internal security and the military tied up with the insurgency. This in turn has implications for Britain and the military coalition in Afghanistan”, Mr North adds.

But some people believe President Zardari should postpone his visit to concentrate on the crisis at home resulting from monsoon floods in the North West of Pakistan. More than 1,300 people have been killed to date and the death toll is set to rise now that the floods have led to a cholera outbreak. Among those calling for the visit to be scrapped is Imran Khan, former Pakistan cricket captain and Chancellor of Bradford University.

The Press Trust of India reported him as saying: “The country is in the grip of the worst floods that have unleashed widespread devastation, leaving hundreds dead and millions homeless. In view of these circumstances, President Zardari should have suspended his planned visit to the UK.”

That feeling is shared by families of Pakistani origin in Bradford, according to Ishtiaq Ahmed, spokesman for Bradford Council of Mosques.

He said: “There is concern about David Cameron’s comments. People feel they were ill-advised and untimely, intended for the Indian government and business community. It was opportunistic. They hoped the Pakistani government would give a firm response.

“People are now saying that, given the extent of the flooding, the priority should be supporting those people. All the millions of rupees spent on President Zardari’s European and UK visits should be spent on the victims of the floods.

“Families in Bradford have close links with two places in particular, Nowshera and Murdan. Nowshera has been a military base for a long time.

“The situation is very much one of despair and anguish because people don’t know what’s happening. People are saying the Pakistani government should do whatever is necessary: that is the priority.”