Benazir intends to visit India

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MAY 25. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, intends to travel to India in the near future to promote peace in the region.

An announcement made by the PPP here today said that the party had been in favour of bilateral dialogue and it welcomed the new initiative.

A senior PPP functionary said that Mrs. Bhutto has had plans to visit India for more than two years. ``She had conveyed her willingness to visit New Delhi when she addressed a delegation of Indian Parliamentarians in Islamabad in March 1999. Unfortunately the programme did not materialise due to the Kargil war. In the light of the latest developments, Mrs. Bhutto believes that it is the right time to visit India''.

A spokesman of the party said that since the military ruler and the Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has expressed readiness to respond to the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the former Prime Minister ``will also visit New Delhi sometime this year''.

However there is a sense of disappointment in the PPP camp over the timing of the invitation.

Some of the leaders think that the invitation at this juncture would confer a sort of legitimacy to the military leadership.

The PPP spokesman while welcoming the initiative said that his party was not optimistic about the chances of a breakthrough in the proposed summit meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf. ``Gen. Musharraf is a military dictator. History proved that dictators go to war and democrats build peace''.

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Section  : International
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