Pak official keep mum on Vajpayee8217;s reaction

KARACHI, Feb 4: Pakistani officials did not comment on Wednesday on the statement by prime minister A B Vajpayee on his intention to visit Pakistan on the inaugural bus service between Delhi and Lahore later this month. Officials contacted at the foreign office in Islamabad said that an official statement may be issued at the weekly press briefing of the foreign office later this week.

Prime Minister Vajpayee8217;s visit, if it takes place, will be a visit by an Indian prime minister to Pakistan after ten years. The last visit by an Indian PM was the visit of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to Islamabad in 1988 to attend a SAARC summit.

Officials, however, pointed out that if such a visit were to go ahead, it would be a security nightmare for the Pakistan government. Vajpayee would be visiting Lahore by road, within a month of an attempt on the life of the Pakistan prime minister in the suburbs of the same city. A bomb was placed under a bridge on the route Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was about to take to reach his family villa on the outskirts of Lahore.