M A I N   N E W S

Malik to accompany Zardari on India visit
List of 40-member delegation handed over to India
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik is a surprise inclusion in the 40-member strong delegation that will accompany President Asif Ali Zardari to India for pilgrimage to the Ajmer Sharif on Sunday.

Malik, the only minister in the delegation, is expected to brief Home Minister P Chidambaram on the progress made by Pakistan in prosecuting the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Since the meeting will take place just days after the US declared $ 10 million bounty on Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed’s head, New Delhi is likely to draw Islamabad’s attention to the hate speeches against India that the mastermind of the Mumbai attack has been delivering in Pakistan even as law enforcing agencies act as mute spectators.

Apart from Malik, the delegation will include close family members, other than children, of Zardari, senior officials and journalists.

Sources said officials of India and Pakistan were currently discussing the protocol matters connected with Zardari’s visit. The list of the Pakistan President’s delegation has already been handed over to India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold one-on-one talks with President Zardari before the two sit down for lunch at the PM’s residence here. This will be nearly after a gap of three years that Singh will be meeting Zardari. The two had last met in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on the margins of the SCO Summit in June 2009.

The meeting between the two leaders will be a private affair. There will be no media interaction since Zardari will be on a private visit. “However, all due courtesies extended to a head of state will be extended to President Zardari,’’ the sources added.

After the lunch with Singh, Zardari will fly to Jaipur from where he will drive to Ajmer. He would spend about 30 minutes at the shrine and return to Jaipur in the evening before flying back to Islamabad.

Meanwhile, security in the capital will be beefed up for the Pakistani leader’s visit. National Security Guard (NSG) commandos and police would provide him security.

much-anticipated trip

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold one-on-one talks with President Zardari
• The two had last met in Russia in June 2009
• As the meeting between the two leaders will be a private affair, there will be no interaction with the media
• Malik likely to brief Chidambaram on the progress made by Pakistan in the Mumbai attack case

Home Secy-level talks likely

Amid renewed engagements between India and Pakistan, Home Secretaries of the two countries may hold a bilateral meeting later this month in Islamabad. Pakistan has offered to host the next India-Pak Home Secretary level talks later this month and asked New Delhi to inform it whether the period is suitable for India. If it suits Home Secretary R K Singh, the government may give its go-ahead