July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 14: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) President and MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman met Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar at the Foreign Office here on Monday afternoon ahead of the JUI leaders’ planned week-long goodwill visit to India.

Mr Khokhar briefed Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the current state of Pakistan’s relations with India and the recent thaw, sources said.

After his meeting at the foreign office that lasted over an hour, the JUI president left for Lahore from where he would depart for India by bus on a five-day visit.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman will be leading a four-member delegation to India.

Other members of the team include JUI leaders Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, MNA Maulana Qazi Hameedullah and Senator Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, who is general secretary of the MMA in the NWFP.

During his visit, the JUI chief will meet representatives of key religious and political parties in India. He is going at the special invitation of JUI Hind president Maulana Asad Madani. The invitation was extended to Maulana Fazlur Rehman about a month ago.

His brother, Ziaur Rehman, told Dawn that the JUI leader had requested meetings with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Advani and Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha through the Indian high commission in Islamabad. However, no confirmation had been received yet.

Mr Ziaur Rehman said the purpose of the visit was to facilitate a composite dialogue process between Pakistan and India.

Amir Wasim adds: A spokesman for the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), S.A. Shamsi, said the parliamentary party leader of the MMA in the National Assembly and chief of the Jamaat, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was also going abroad in a day or two.

The Jamaat chief was going to attend an international Islamic conference in the UK, Mr Shamsi said and added that he was also expected to visit some other countries and might remain out of the country for about a week.

With the departure of Maulana Fazlur Rehman for India and Qazi Hussain Ahmed for the UK, almost all the top leadership of the religious alliance would be out of the country in the coming week as MMA President Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani has already left for Canada and Libya on a tableeghi mission.

Asked why these leaders were leaving the country at a crucial time when the government had renewed talks offer with the opposition parties, Mr Shamsi said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali told the MMA leaders on Sunday that formal talks would begin only after the return of PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain from his foreign tour.

As Mr Jamali had not given any specific date for the talks and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was not expected to return home before the end of this week, the absence of the top MMA leaders from the country would not delay the proposed government-opposition talks, Mr Shamsi added.

Reuters adds: Maulana Fazlur Rehman will visit India on Wednesday.