International - India & World   

India invites Shaukat Aziz

Nirupama Subramanian

Prime Minister invited to SAARC meet at Pakistan's request

FOR CORDIAL TIES: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Ending speculation on who will represent Pakistan at the New Delhi SAARC summit in April — the President or the Prime Minister — External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced on arrival here that the invitation was addressed to Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

"I am carrying the letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inviting His Excellency Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to attend the 14th SAARC summit to be held on April 3 and 4 of this year," Mr. Mukherjee said in an arrival statement after flying in to the Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi.

Both sides earlier said Mr. Mukherjee would hand over the invitation to President Pervez Musharraf. The SAARC summit is a meeting of heads of government, and in Pakistan, the Prime Minister has that designation. President Pervez Musharraf is the real power centre in Pakistan, but he is officially the head of state.

Still, as President Musharraf attended the 2002 Kathmandu summit, officials on both sides said earlier it was up to him to decide whether to go to New Delhi or nominate the Prime Minister to represent Pakistan.

But Gen. Musharraf's possible participation in the summit appeared to have got entangled with the condition that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh take up his long-standing invitation to visit Pakistan first.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said in so many words two days before Mr. Mukherjee's arrival that as Gen. Musharraf already visited India in April 2005, it was now for Mr. Singh to reciprocate the visit.

Indian officials said the invitation from Dr. Singh was addressed to Mr. Aziz at the request of the Pakistan Government.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Sri Lanka: 16 killed in landslips
Terror: Blair for hard military power
Scientists reconstruct Dante's face
Experiment suggests we may be Martians
Red Cross gets emblem option
David Beckham going places
Bush battles to shore up support
Fury at Arab in Israeli Cabinet
Citizen assessment
India invites Shaukat Aziz
Pakistan has given detailed plan on Siachen
Pranab raises PoW issue
Let Kashmiris shape their future: JKLF

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu