Agence France Presse

New Delhi, March 21:

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh today hosted a lunch for Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s mother at his official residence in New Delhi, an official said. “It is a private lunch,” a spokesman for Singh said without giving any details. Musharraf’s octogenarian mother Zarin, the president’s son Bilal and elder brother Javed arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday and have been visiting sites connected with their past when they lived in India, including their ancestral home in old Delhi.

The weeklong visit by the Musharrafs reflects improving ties between the nuclear-armed rivals. The Musharraf family is originally from India and, like millions of other Indian Muslims, they fled India in 1947 to become citizens of Pakistan when the subcontinent was divided after Britain ended colonial rule. Singh, on the other hand was born in Gah, a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province and came to India during the partition. Meanwhile, the Times of India newspaper reported that president Musharraf’s son Bilal has invited the son of Sonia Gandhi, leader of India’s ruling Congress party, to visit Pakistan after they met at the weekend and “got along fabulously.”

The meeting between Bilal Musharraf and Rahul Gandhi at Sonia Gandhi’s house in New Delhi was arranged by India’s foreign minister Natwar Singh and lasted about 45 minutes. An unidentified source told the paper: “Unencumbered by the baggage of history and keen to know about the changing situation in each other’s country, the two young men got along fabulously.” The invitation was issued during the meeting, the report said. Pakistan High Commission officials were not immediately available for comment. Reports said Sonia Gandhi has also been invited to visit Pakistan, while India’s opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani is expected to travel to Pakistan soon.