New Delhi, January 21
Senior BJP leader and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, will pay his respects at Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum during his forthcoming visit to the neighbouring country.
Addressing newspersons about his pilgrimage journey to Hinglaj Mata Temple in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan by road from January 30, Mr Singh said here that his visit was 'purely personal' in nature and he would be one of a group of 100 devotees, who would take an arduous desert route from Munabao in Rajasthan to reach Khokhrapar in the neighbouring country.
The shrine, considered one of the most inaccessible of the temples of goddess Shakti, is a five-hour drive from Karachi in an area that also has a mud volcano.
Stating that his journey was not a political visit but a pilgrimage, he thanked Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh for granting him special permission to visit the shrine by road.
‘’I would say this is a recognition by both sides that the division was not limited to the Punjab province but the population south of Punjab also suffered the ill effects of Partition,’’ he remarked, pointing out that Karachi was just 375 km away from Munabao, while it would be around 4,000 km for someone taking the Delhi-Wagah-Attari route.
He said many in Rajasthan
had relatives on the Pakistani side and the expansion of people-to-people contact was in the interest of peace between the two countries. ‘’Our relatives living on the other side of the border have businesses and land holdings and I will be meeting them after a long gap,’’ Mr Singh said.
Mr Singh who is working on a biography of Pakistan-founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah said during his three days’ stay in Karachi, he would also visit Mr Jinnah’s mausoleum as a “good guest’’ and pay his respects.
He would also meet the Governor and leaders in Sindh. Asked if he had sought the BJP’s permission to visit Jinnah’s tomb, Mr Singh said the party was aware of the visit for the past one-and-a-half years.
“My visit to Jinnah’s tomb is like a foreigner going to Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi when they are in Delhi,’’ he said. As far as the biography was concerned, he said he had done preliminary research and would commence writing after his return.
Mr Singh, who was foreign minister in the Vajpayee government avoided a comment on the Pakistan military’s action in the Baluch region.
