Kasuri invites PM to visit ancestral village

New Delhi, Nov 27 (UNI) A big-ticket wedding reception in the capital city today became an occasion for Pakistan to extend an informal invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Gah, the village where he was born.

The unexpected invitation came from Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, while exchanging pleasantries with Dr Singh at the wedding reception of the daughter of Union Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

''Mr Prime Minister, when are you visiting Pakistan," Mr Kasuri asked Dr Singh, hugging him.

As Dr Singh smiled without saying anything in response, Mr Kasuri sought to take him down memory lane, saying "your village is anxiously waiting for you." Dr Singh did not give any reply to the invitation, but it was clear to the journalists and others around that he was not averse to the idea.

Mr Kasuri, a friend of Mr Aiyar from their college days in Cambridge, had arrived here specially to attend the marriage of Ms Yamini to Mr Adarsh, the son of former Union Minister S Krishnakumar, and the reception today.

''We want him to be in Pakistan at the earliest," Mr Kasuri told UNI after his brief meeting with Dr Singh. In this context, he pointed out that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had visited Delhi last year.

Though Mr Kasuri came on a private visit to attend the marriage, he had converted the occasion into an opportunity for discussing bilateral relations between the two countries at a luncheon meeting hosted for him by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides Prime Minister Singh, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani, Union Ministers and MPs, the reception was attended by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

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