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Kasuri not to visit Delhi to invite PM

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Sept. 16. As a sequel to the comments made by the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, that there was no need for the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, to visit New Delhi to personally invite the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for the SAARC Summit, the Minister has decided to exclude India from his itinerary. In an angry reaction to Mr. Sibal's comments, a spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office said Pakistan had decided to deliver the invitation from the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, for the SAARC Summit between January 4 and 6 to Mr. Vajpayee through diplomatic channels.

The spokesman dubbed the comments of Mr. Sibal "inappropriate, regrettable and discourteous".

He maintained that India, which kept on harping that there was no need of bilateralism as far as SAARC was concerned, had done just the opposite by not welcoming Mr. Kasuri to New Delhi on what is purely a SAARC-related visit.

"It is regrettable that the Indian Foreign Secretary has objected to Mr. Kasuri's visits to the SAARC capitals to personally deliver the letters of invitation. He has perhaps forgotten that it was a SAARC tradition, which was being strictly adhered to by the countries of the region interested in the continuation of the SAARC process."

The spokesman said Mr. Kasuri, during his recent visit to some SAARC capitals, had received tremendous support for the continuation of the SAARC process.

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