‘Private visit’: PM to follow president’s footsteps in India

Prime Minister Ashraf expected to visit Ajmer shrine on Saturday.


Afp March 06, 2013
President Asif Ali Zardari in India. PHOTO: FILE

NEW DELHI:


Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf will visit India for the first time this week for a day-long pilgrimage to the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz in Ajmer Sharif, officials in both countries said Tuesday.


“Pakistan’s prime minister will be in India on Saturday. This is a private visit and he will be accompanied by his family and other officials,” an Indian government official said, requesting anonymity.

“He is not expected to meet any Indian political leaders. This is clearly a religious and spiritual trip,” he told AFP.

Ashraf and his family are expected to pray at the shrine in Ajmer, some 400 kilometres west of New Delhi.

A senior government official confirmed that Ashraf would make a private visit to India on Saturday, but said the details were being finalised. “The details, including his programme, what he will do there and who he will meet, are being worked out,” the Pakistani official said.

Ashraf will be the most senior Pakistani to visit India since last April when President Asif Ali Zardari embarked on a similar pilgrimage and then had lunch with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours came under fresh strain in January when six soldiers were killed in exchanges along the de facto border in Kashmir, a region claimed by both countries. The situation has calmed since a ceasefire was agreed between the two armies at the end of January.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2013.

COMMENTS (1)

Ancy | 11 years ago | Reply

I think whether it is private visit or not, the visit is very important for both country because after the hanging of Afsal Guru, the relations of both nations have some spark of clashes in everyone's mind..So, Pakistan prime minister's visit India will make strengthen the relations of each country..With the invitation of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, French President Francois Hollande, already visited to India. It was really a great visit and it could make the relations of India and French so sturdy. Hope the same will happen in India and Pak relations too...

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