ISLAMABAD – In a major diplomatic initiative, India invited President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday to watch the Cricket World Cup semi-final match between Pakistan and India in Mohali on March 30, with Islamabad confirming the invitation.
A source saying that one of the two leaders, most probably the prime minister, would take the opportunity to meet his Indian counterpart and informally exchange views on the recently resumed full-spectrum dialogue between the two countries.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the president and the prime minister of Pakistan to come and watch the match as he also intended to be present at the historic event. If Islamabad accepts, it would be the first visit to India by a Pakistani head of the state or the government after former president Pervez Musharraf’s “cricket yatra” to India in 2005 to give impetus to the peace process.
Musharraf went to India on April 16, 2005 to watch the last match of the Indo-Pakistan One Day International series. “There is huge excitement over the match and we are all looking forward to a great game of cricket, that will be a victory for sport,” the Indian prime minister said in the invitation, adding that it gave him “great pleasure to invite you to visit Mohali and join me and the millions of fans from our two countries to watch the match”.
“Invitations to President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani from the Indian prime minister to watch the World Cup semi-final match to be held in Mohali on March 30 have been received this (Friday) evening at the Foreign Office,” Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua confirmed.
Janjua did not say whether the president or the prime minister would go to India. An official told Pakistan Today however that the invitation had been accepted. “Most probably, the prime minister will go to watch the match,” the official said.
The diplomatic circles termed the Indian invitation a bid to revive “cricket diplomacy” between the South Asian neighbours to create a favourable ambiance for the settlement of conflicts. Former president General Ziaul Haq had also visited India in February 1987 to watch a Pakistan-India cricket match to ease tension between the two countries.
Another Pakistani official said that it was a well-thought-out move on the part of the Indian prime minister and it was not merely a goodwill gesture. The official said India had also decided to issue around 1,500 additional visas to Pakistani fans who wanted to attend the semi-final match. He said information received from New Delhi suggested that the Indian External Affairs Ministry had instructed the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to process the requests for visas.
An Indian media report quoting government sources said that Chandigarh police had been told to prepare for the visit of the Pakistani leader. The invitation comes at a time when relations between the two countries are still far from normalised in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, but dialogue has finally resumed between the two countries and their foreign ministers are due to meet in Delhi in July.
The foreign secretaries of both countries have already met in Bhutan earlier this year. The match in Mohali is being seen as one of the most exciting fixtures of the Cricket World Cup 2011, fuelled by nationalism and one of the fiercest sporting rivalries.
