President Asif Ali Zardari, who is leaving for India on one-day trip today (Sunday), will invite Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan. According to Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit, President Zardari will meet Singh at a lunch in New Delhi, saying that the two leaders will discuss all the issues which continue to take priority in bilateral relations of the two countries.
Basit said Islamabad was looking forward to a constructive engagement between the two leaders and also expressed the confidence that the meeting will contribute towards intra-regional co-operation. "As far as the talks are concerned, there is no agenda and it is not a structured dialogue," he said, adding that "But when the two leaders meet, bilateral issues between the two countries and the regional situation will be discussed," he added.
About meeting between Bilawal and Rahul Gandhi, the spokesman said he has no knowledge of such meeting, adding that it was a brief visit aimed at paying obeisance to Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif. However, he said the visit was important for the reason that the two countries were currently engaged in the second round of dialogue that began last year after a gap of over two years in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
He said Islamabad was hopeful that the second round of dialogue would be completed in June-July this year, which would be followed by visit of the Indian foreign affairs minister to Pakistan to review the process. Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the President will pay a day-long trip to India on Sunday to visit the shrine of a saint and to attend a luncheon to be hosted in his honour by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
According to Farhatullah Babar, President's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and President's personal and security staff will be accompanying the President. He said President Zardari will leave for Ajmer Sharif for Ziarat and prayers at the Shrine of saint Hazrat Khawaja Ghareeb Nawaz and will return the same day.
The spokesman said the President has also accepted luncheon invitation of Prime Minister Singh in New Delhi en route to Ajmer Sharif. Zardari will be the first Pakistani head of state to visit India in seven years after the then president Pervez Musharraf who paid an official visit to India in 2005. However, the Foreign Office spokesman while commenting on the bounties announced by the US on JuD leaders said Islamabad will not bow before Washington pressure. He called for concrete evidences against the two.