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Pak. Minister to invite PM for SAARC Summit

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Nov. 7. The Pakistan Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who will be in New Delhi tomorrow to attend the SAARC Information Ministers conference, has said that he would extend an invitation to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on behalf of the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, for the SAARC Summit scheduled here in the first week of January.

It is immediately not clear if Pakistan has sought any appointment for a meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Rashid. According to a senior official in the Indian High Commission there was no such request till this evening. The Information Ministers conference is scheduled from November 9 to 11.

The announcement of Mr. Rashid, known for his flamboyance, assumes significance, as Islamabad has already extended an official invitation for the summit through the Indian mission here to Mr. Vajpayee.

Originally, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, had planned to go to New Delhi to hand over the invitation to the Prime Minister but dropped his plan after the Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, made it known that there was no need for him to adhere to such a formality.

Incidentally, the Pakistan Education Minister, Zubaida Jalal, would also be in New Delhi around the same time to participate in a United Nations-sponsored conference on education. It will be for the first time, since the collapse of the Agra Summit in July 2001, that representatives of the Pakistan Government will be in New Delhi.

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