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Summary Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will arrive here on his three-day visit on Friday.
According to Foreign Office spokesman, Krishna will meet his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, President Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister.The main purpose of the visit is to improve bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.Technical committees will meet in Islamabad ahead of Krishna’s arrival on Friday and provide inputs for the commission that will be co-chaired by Krishna and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.The aim of the joint commission is to improve the “nuts and bolts” of the relationship while keeping discussions going on contentious issues such as Kashmir, which sparked three of the four wars between the two neighbours.Trade has been the main driver of relations between India and Pakistan since last February when the two countries resumed dialogue that had been stalled by the Mumbai attacks in 2008.Since the resumption of the dialogue, India has relaxed rules to allow Pakistani investment into India and both sides are working on ways to allow their banks to operate in the other country. A visa pact that aims to improve people-to-people contact and business links between the two countries has been finalized and only needs to be signed.Earlier this month, India’s cabinet reduced the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) sensitive list for Pakistan by 30% to 614 items. And last week, Indian commerce secretary S R. Rao said India would propose the start of direct flights between New Delhi and Islamabad in the forthcoming talks between the commerce secretaries of India and Pakistan.For its part, Pakistan has said it will grant India most-favoured nation status by December this year. It has already moved from a positive list based trading system to a negative list.But though progress has been made on trade, the issue of terrorism is as important for India, the issue of terrorism is expected to come up in the Krishna-Khar talks that will precede the joint commission meeting.India has been pushing Pakistan to bring to justice the planners of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that claimed the lives of 166 people when militants targeted multiple locations in India’s commercial capital. Pakistan has arrested seven people in connection with the case but the pace of the trial has been slow.Besides his meeting with Khar, Krishna’s engagements include meetings with Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and leaders of political parties. On Sunday, Krishna will travel to Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore, where he is expected to visit the mausoleums of the poet Mohammed Iqbal and Ali Hajveri, one of the greatest mystics of Sub Continent.The Indian Minster is also expected to meet Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhry Shujat and other political figures in Lahore.
