Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s India visit on Sunday may be 'private' but it was increasingly assuming 'official' hues on Saturday for, under the broad term of 'bilateral issues', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to raise with Zardari India’s concern about 26/11 terror attacks mastermind and Laskhar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed roaming freely in Pakistan despite the evidence New Delhi has provided of his involvement.

An indication of this came when, ahead of Zardari’s visit, the Union home ministry handed over to the Prime Minister’s Office all the dossiers it has given to Pakistan post 26/11, including the one on Saeed. Earlier this week, the US government put out a bounty of $10 million on Saeed.

Amidst indications that Saeed will figure in the PM-President meeting, Zardari himself chose to strike a different note on Saturday. He told reporters in Lahore that he did not expect Saeed to be the focus of his meeting with the Indian PM.

“My stance on Saeed is not different from that of my government. My visit to India is of a religious nature and I do not think Manmohan Singh will make me sit (and discuss only) this issue,” said Zardari. Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik is also part of the the Pakistan President’s delegation.

The Zardari-Singh meeting is scheduled for half an hour, beginning 12.15 pm Sunday at the Prime Minister’s 7, Race Course Road residence.

Kashmiris adopt wait & watch approach

Despite being the first Pakistan head of state to visit India after seven years, President Asif Ali Zardari’s arrival in India on a day-long visit on Sunday has so far not created too many ripples in J&K.

For one, initially it had been described as a private visit to the dargah of Ajmer Sharif but a luncheon meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and the Pakistani President has given it a greater spin.
Even though tensions between the two nuclear armed neighbours are on the bend, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah went public on Saturday to state that he for one had few expectations from the visit.

A categorical Omar said, “We don’t have many expectations. It’s a system. I think we ourselves weaken the system when we think that one meeting would solve all the problems.”

The chief minister hoped that a greater dialogue could be resumed between people on both sides of the LoC. “I also believe the barter system of trade should be replaced with other financial terms or letters of credit should be used as a mechanism for trading,” he said, adding, “I for one hope that this continuous dialogue process continues between the two countries.”

Dr Sameer Kaul, PDP spokesperson, believes Kashmiris are viewing the visit with interest because Mr Zardari is bringing a high-level delegation and both he and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are going to have a one-on-one meeting. “The stakes have been stepped up further now that we learn Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will also be meeting Zardari,” said Dr Kaul.

“The future of the people of Kashmir is being negotiated but they remain excluded from the dialogue. The Kashmiris have been demanding a tripartite dialogue yet they are nowhere in the picture,” he said.

Dr Suneem Khan, a Srinagar-based oncologist, believes the separatist camp, including Yasin Malik, Sajid Lone and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, are pinning their hopes on the visit though the rest of the public sees this as being one more confidence-building measure being undertaken by the nations.