M A I N   N E W S

Benazir has lunch with Advani, tea with Vajpayee
Tribune News Service

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee talks with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in New Delhi on Friday. — Reuters photo

New Delhi, December 12
The importance of being Benazir Bhutto was evident today as the top leadership of the country rolled out a red carpet welcome for the former Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered Ms Bhutto tea when she met him this evening.

Sources told The Tribune that there was no specific agenda for the Vajpayee-Bhutto talks. However, it is understood that the political situation in Pakistan, the status of democracy in that country and India-Pakistan relations came up under focus during the talks.

Ms Bhutto had met Mr Vajpayee once earlier when she had visited India.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and his wife, Kamla Advani, hosted a private lunch for Ms Bhutto at their Prithviraj Road residence. The luncheon meeting lasted about two hours.

Interestingly, Ms Bhutto is known as ‘The Mother of Taliban’ as the radical Islamic outfit was born during her prime ministership and her then Interior Minister had helped the Taliban.

Ms Bhutto, who is here to attend a two-day conference on peace in South Asia, arrived at Mr Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence at 1 p.m.

As Ms Bhutto, wearing a bright violet salwar-suit, arrived in a navy blue Mercedes bearing a Delhi registration number, she was received at the portico with flowers by the Advanis and their daughter Pratibha.

To play host to former Pakistan Prime Minister, Ms Kamla Advani advanced her programme to inaugurate an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) exhibition here this morning by an hour.

Although neither Ms Bhutto nor Mr Advani spoke to waiting journalists outside, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Secretariat maintained that it was purely a personal and private luncheon as both leaders belonged to Sindh province in Pakistan, the meeting assumed significance in the light of the peace initiatives taken by the two countries.

The meeting of Ms Bhutto and Mr Advani took place 23 days ahead of the SAARC Summit in Pakistan in which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would take part.

This is the second time Ms Bhutto attended lunch by the Advanis, the previous one being four years ago at the previous residence of Mr Advani at Pandara Park, when he was the Union Home Minister.