NEW DELHI, May 12: The Indian government has decided to end its virtual “boycott” of the visiting parliamentarians from Pakistan as Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes expressed their readiness to receive them this week, sources said on Monday.
A dozen legislators, mainly from Pakistan’s opposition parties, had so far been denied official acceptance.
TV channels and newspapers had been adversely speculating about the “boycott”, particularly after the sponsors of the visit, India-Pakistan Friendship Forum, said it had formally written to senior government ministers, including Mr L.K. Advani, to meet with the Pakistani legislators.
Meanwhile, India’s Lok Sabha (lower house) speaker Manohar Joshi on Monday ruled out sending a reciprocal parliamentary delegation to Pakistan as, according to him, Islamabad had not “put an end to cross-border terrorism.”
