The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan’s card to Zardari big news

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Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009
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Manmohan’s card to Zardari big news

Nirupama Subramanian

After hoax call, the Aiwan-e-Sadr is not hiding New Year card

ISLAMABAD: From a hoax call from a man pretending to be External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and threatening war to a New Year greeting card – apparently genuine – from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a message of peace, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari can now say he has seen it all in six short weeks.

The hoax call, days after the Mumbai attacks, escalated the tensions between the two countries. It made President Zardari reach for the phones to the Pakistan Army and Washington, and the Pakistan Air Force was put on full alert. The presidency did not like it when it got out that it had been had.

The New Year card, the Aiwan-e-Sadr is not hiding. The news of its arrival made it to the wires of the State-run Associated Press of Pakistan. The card, which is said to have a dove printed on the front, is being described as “a message of warming relations between the two countries” nearly two months after the Mumbai attacks.

“The leadership of Pakistan and India have been stressing on the continuity of peace process between the two countries, with President Zardari always emphasising that the peace process should not be hijacked by the non-State actors. Now the good wishes extended by Prime Minister Singh to President Zardari through a greetings card, having a dove printed on its front side, also exhibits the same desire of peace and harmony between the two South Asian neighbours,” APP gushed.

Inscribed by both Dr. Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, the card says “with all good wishes for the new year.”

Contacted by a cheeky Pakistani journalist who wanted to know if the card had been confirmed as genuine, the President’s spokesman, Farahtullah Babar, said in his matter-of-fact manner that the card had arrived through the Foreign Office.

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