ISLAMABAD, Dec 6:
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s planned trip to India has been delayed by a few days and will now visit New Delhi on December 14.
He tweeted early this morning that he had sought a change in the dates for his visit to India due to the previously scheduled tripartite meeting in Turkey.
Malik tweeted he was grateful to his Indian counterpart Sushilkumar Shinde “for his kind gesture to invite me to celebrate my birthday in Agra” on December 12.
Malik was scheduled to visit India during December 11-13 and make a trip to Agra with his wife to celebrate his birthday in the city of the Taj Mahal.
He tweeted that the new proposed dates for his visit are December 14-16 and that Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi was finalising the programme.
The Pakistan Minister said he plans to visit Agra on December 14.
The Pakistani media yesterday reported that India had agreed to accommodate Malik’s desire to spend his birthday in Agra, prompting people to take to social media platforms to poke fun at the Interior Minister.
Responding to criticism of his visit, Malik tweeted: “Media is televising that I will be celebrating my birthday in Agra? Media (should) have asked me if I am going on 12th to India or not?” Malik is scheduled to visit India for the “operationalisation” of a new visa agreement between the two countries.
The signing of the pact was delayed from May to September due to opposition from Malik and experts have questioned whether his visit to Delhi is necessary to operationalise the agreement as it has already been ratified by the Pakistani cabinet and the move confirmed by President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sources in India said as December 13 is the 11th anniversary of Parliament attack, carried out by Pakistani terrorists, Malik might have chosen to avoid being in India on that day.
The Interior Minister was earlier scheduled to visit India during November 22-23 but Delhi asked for the trip to be rescheduled as it did not want Malik to be in the country just a day after the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (PTI)
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