The Foreign Office said on Monday that a visit by a Pakistan delegation to Gaza and Al-Quds (Jerusalem) was being worked out with the host officials. This will be the first official visit by a government delegation since the creation of the local authority to administer Gaza and parts of West Bank more than a decade ago.
Gaza is under the direct administration of a Palestinian Authority that was created under late Yasser Arafat and is now headed by President Mahmoud Abbas who visited Islamabad in May last. The visit is being arranged in response to his wishes, the Foreign Office spokesman said.
In a statement read out at his weekly news briefing for the media here on Monday, Muhammed Naeem Khan said that a Pakistan delegation's visit was being planned since then.
A significant event that occurred recently, he said, was the evacuation of Gaza areas by the Jew settlers which was welcomed by Islamabad as a positive step. He hoped that this would lead to the establishment of an 'independent Palestinian state' realising the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.
When pointed out that Israel still 'oversaw' most of the affairs of the Palestinian Authority, on whose visa the Pakistan delegates would be travelling to Gaza and, particularly, Al-Quds, Naeem said the procedures in this respect were being worked out.
Al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, meaning 'heavenly abode of the blessed' in Hebrew, is a sacred city for Muslims to which the Israelis moved their capital from Tel Aviv after wresting it completely from the Jordanians in 1957. The Arabs have been demanding its restoration to the Palestinian Authority as capital of an 'Independent' Palestine.
He could not specify the dates for the visit by the delegation and said that the proposal was still in the melting pot and the dates would be announced after finalisation of procedural matters.
There was no agenda yet for talks as it would be a goodwill visit in response to the proposal of Palestinian leaders.
The composition and size of the delegation and its leader could not be ascertained, but one thing was certain that the visit would take place most likely after the visit of President Pervez Musharraf to the New York where he would also address the Jewish Congress of America next month.