December 31, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 15, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: The government on Sunday contacted former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in exile in Dubai, to discuss current tensions with India, her party said.

A Pakistan People’s Party statement said that Pakistan’s consul-general in Dubai, Amanullah Larik, met Ms Bhutto on Sunday morning and delivered a message from the government.

“This was the first contact between the military regime and the Pakistan People’s Party chief,” it said of the message, sent by Gen Musharraf from the GHQ.

The message invited the PPP to attend, “in the national interest”, a meeting with politicians set for Sunday.

The statement quoted party vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim as saying the party had decided to attend, but he could not make it to Islamabad because no flight was available from Karachi.

The PPP statement quoted Ms Bhutto as telling Consul-General Larik in Dubai that her party “appreciated the initiative taken by Gen Musharraf to contact it on a party basis" and that “national reconciliation was important to the internal stability of the country”.

—Reuters