Intense security surrounds their visit to a country officially designated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a dangerous place in which to be.

Although their itinerary avoids the riskiest areas, thousands of police and military have been designated to ensure their safety. British officials are dismayed at how much detail of their programme has been leaked to the Pakistani press, despite attempts by Clarence House to keep it under wraps.

One senior member of the British High Commission in Islamabad shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “It happens here; it’s just one of those things,” he said.

The royal couple were greeted at the foot of the aircraft steps by Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the British High Commissioner, and by Sumaira Malik, Pakistan’s Minister of Youth and Women’s Development. They were whisked in a heavily armed convoy to a presidential guest house in the capital, where they will spend the next three days.

Today they will be welcomed formally to the country by President Musharraf, behind the closed doors of the Presidential Palace. The Duchess will have a separate private meeting with Mrs Musharraf.

Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan’s thoroughly Westernised Prime Minister, who has spent much of his life working for an American bank, issued the invitation to the royal couple during a visit to London in March.

The Duchess was included because, legally if not always in practice, women have equal rights under Pakistani law. The Prince was keen to further his dialogue with moderate Islam and to see efforts to repair the devastation of last year’s huge earthquake in the north of the country. The British Government has been keen to promote the visit to recognise President Musharraf’s co-operation with Britain and the United States in the war on terror.

It is the Prince’s first visit to Pakistan, although the Queen has been here twice, most recently in 1997. For the Prince and the Duchess it is only their second big joint trip abroad, after a relatively gentle canter around the US last November.

For at least one engagement the Duchess will have to observe Islamic tradition and cover her hair with a headscarf, although she will not at any stage be obliged to wear a veil. Her head will be covered when the couple visit a madrassa, a seminary for the training of imams. Perhaps as a piece of security disinformation, it has been reported that they will be visiting one in Lahore, where one of the July 7 London suicide bombers is said to have been schooled in extremism.

The royal couple will in fact visit a “new model madrassa” in another city, where Islamic teaching figures side by side on the curriculum with computing and English language classes that are promoted by the British Council.

This madrassa is funded mainly by public donations, whereas the Pakistan Government pours an estimated £700 million a year into other similar schools which, since 9/11, have become increasingly popular with young British Muslims attracted to the hard-line academy of their faith.

President Musharraf’s efforts to modernise their curriculums are regarded as a failure, because of stiff resistance from the religious organisations that control them. Shehzad Tanweer, one of the London bombers, spent time at one such school in Lahore in 2004. The Prince will attend an interfaith seminar at another venue in the city while the Duchess is taken on a garden tour.

The couple will also travel to the north of the country to see work by the Red Cross on repairing the damage caused by last year’s earthquake, which ripped through the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan- controlled Kashmir, killing 86,000 people and making hundreds of thousands homeless.

With the approach of winter, progress in rehousing is slow. At least 35,000 people are still in camps, with another 30,000 expected to come down from the mountains in search of shelter as the season turns.

During a visit to a remote mountain village in the foothills of the Karakorams, within sight of the mountains K2 and manga Parbat, the royal couple will see organic farming and literacy programmes supported by British Aid; about half of the entire Pakistani population of about 140 million is illiterate.

The visit will recognise two other bonds; nearly 2 per cent of Pakistan’s population is Christian, and in the UK there are at least 750,000 British citizens of Pakistani descent.

OFFICIAL ADVICE TO TRAVELLERS

The website of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises travellers that:

Explore Asia News

• China News

Times Recommends

• No cause for celebration in crushed Sarajevo
• Jazz funeral for the final victims of Katrina
• French fined for 'insulting' civil servants