Zardari arrives in Delhi, to meet Manmohan Singh over lunch

New Delhi, Apr 8 (ANI): Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari arrived here on Sunday afternoon for his daylong trip to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

Zardari will be meeting Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during his three-hour stopover in Delhi. It will be Zardari's first visit to India as Pakistan's President, and will provide a chance to promote bilateral ties between both sides.

According to media reports, the US bounty on Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Mohammad Hafiz Saeed is likely to be the prime focus of the talks between Zardari and Dr. Singh who will meeting after almost three years.

The two leaders had last met on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Russia in 2009.

Though Zardari's visit is personal in nature, it is bound to have strong ramification on the relations between the two nations.

New Delhi had suspended the peace process between the two sides after the commando-style militant attacks in India' commercial capital Mumbai in 2008, blaming Pakistan-based militants for the death of 166 people.

Since then, officials from the two nations have met to improve ties, but have shied away from resuming the dialogue that included resolving key differences, including dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.

Zardari had earlier visited the sufi saint's shrine in 2005, with his wife, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.

Benazir, who was assassinated on December 27, 2007, was a firm believer of Chishti.

India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947, have been slowly trying to repair relations and agreed to resume formal peace talks broken off in the wake of the Mumbai attack in 2008. (ANI)