Gilani to watch WC semi-final with several Cabinet colleagues

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad (PTI) - Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani will be accompanied by ex-premier Chaudhry Shujaat
Hussain and several of his Cabinet colleagues, including
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, for his visit to Mohali
Wednesday to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and
Pakistan, a media report said Tuesday.
Pakistan's Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali
Khan, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Information
Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, Sports Minister Engineer
Shaukatullah, Postal Services Minister Muhammad Gorgage and
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar will
also accompany Gilani, 'The News' daily reported.
Former minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, the spokesman of
the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), party lawmaker
Sherry Rehman, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam parliamentarian Laiq
Muhammad Khan and Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Farooq Sattar
will also be part of the Premier's delegation, the report
said.
Several political parties are sending their leaders
with Gilani as an expression of solidarity, it said.
The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) is yet to nominate its representative for the visit,
the first by Gilani to India after he became the Premier in
2008.
However, there was no official word on the delegation
that would accompany Gilani to Mohali.
Gilani is visiting India at the invitation of his
Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh to watch the semi-final
of the World Cup.
The two Prime Ministers are expected to spend over
five hours in a special box at the Mohali stadium in the
Indian state of Punjab though no formal talks have been
scheduled so far, the report said.
Singh will host a dinner for Gilani and his delegation
before his departure for Pakistan after the game.
The two Prime Ministers have met twice on the
sidelines on international and regional meetings – once at
Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in 2009 and again in the Bhutanese
capital Thimphu last year.
They will meet again a day after the talks between the
Home and Interior Secretaries of India and Pakistan that
marked the formal resumption of dialogue between the two sides
after a gap of over two years in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai
terror attacks.