New Delhi: Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Thursday and handed over an invitation from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan.
Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of the Pakistan prime minister, was with Manmohan Singh for around 20 minutes in the morning.
“He extended an invitation from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan and his village,” a source told IANS.
Sharif called on the prime minister shortly after his arrival in New Delhi.
Shahbaz Sharif “delivered a message of goodwill from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while emphasising Pakistan’s desire to forge friendly and cooperative relations with India, in the interest of peace and prosperity of the people of the two countries and of the region,” said a Pakistan High Commission statement.
The Pakistan Punjab chief minister also underscored the importance of resumption of dialogue and peaceful resolution of all issues.
“The meeting was cordial, constructive and forward looking.”
Shahbaz Sharif was accompanied by Special Assistant to the Pakistan Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, Minister of State for Commerce Khurram Dastagir Khan and Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashood Khan besides outgoing High Commissioner Salman Bashir.
Shahbaz Sharif is here on the invitation of his Punjab counterpart in India, Parkash Singh Badal. He is to also to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.
He is slated to be the chief guest at the World Kabaddi Championship final in Ludhiana on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a nondescript village in Punjab’s border Tarn Taran district is getting a facelift to welcome its VIP visitor on Sunday. Pakistan Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is scheduled to visit Jatti Umra, the ancestral village of the Sharif family.
Shahbaz Sharif will arrive in Punjab on Friday evening. He will be the highest ranked Pakistani leader and Sharif family member to visit the family’s ancestral village, located 35km from the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and about 50km from the India-Pakistan international border.
The village, comprising mostly Sikh families now, celebrated the election of Nawaz Sharif as Pakistan’s prime minister in May this year by distributing sweets and dancing bhangra, a folk dance, to drum beats.
The Sharif family migrated from Jatti Umra before the Partition of India and creation of Pakistan in August 1947.
Punjab’s Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who is supervising arrangements for Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to the village, said the visit will help better ties between both countries.
“The visit will help bring east and west Punjab and their people closer. Both Punjabs can benefit from trade and people-to-people ties,” Majithia said.
On Saturday, he will visit Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, 110km from here. He will also address a joint press conference with Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
On Sunday, Sharif will visit the Talwandi Sabo thermal power plant in Bathinda district. He will be hosted lunch by chief minister Badal at his residence in Badal village in Muktsar district.
He will round up his trip with a visit to Jatti Umra and by offering prayers at holiest of Sikh shrines Harmandir Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple, in Amritsar.
Shahbaz Sharif was scheduled to visit Punjab December last year also but his visit was cancelled at the last minute owing to “health reasons”.
