NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Pakistan and India are likely to raise bilateral issues at the South Asian information ministers meeting which will begin here from Monday.

The three-day meeting will be attended by Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and precedes a crucial summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to be held in Islamabad from January 4-6.

It will be the first time any Pakistani minister has been in India since President Pervez Musharraf came to attend talks in Agra in 2001, which ended in acrimony over the issue of Kashmir.

The information ministers’ meeting, to be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, is expected to set the tone for the January summit.

According to Indian government sources, New Delhi is likely to restrict this week’s information conference to subjects related to the media and could raise the issue of a Pakistani ban on Indian films and TV channels as well as Indian artists travelling to the country.

The free movement of Indian journalists in Pakistan is also likely to be brought up by Indian Information Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the sources said.

However, the Indian side wants to ensure the conference retains its multilateral character and does not focus on bilateral relations, they added.

These issues could be raised at an informal level. Information ministers of all the other Saarc members — Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives — will also attend the meeting.

Sheikh Rashid, who arrives here on Sunday, is also carrying a formal invitation to Mr Vajpayee to attend the January summit, and a “goodwill message of peace” from Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.

“I hope to call on Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to deliver our prime minister’s message of peace and goodwill,” Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told AFP in Islamabad.

The minister said he would also try to meet Kashmiri leaders during his stay in India. He said Pakistan was striving for a comprehensive dialogue with India to resolve all issues including the core dispute over Kashmir.

Over the past decade, Saarc meetings have been a forum for India and Pakistan to rake up their bilateral disputes, particularly over Kashmir.

A summit was to have been held in Islamabad in January this year but India failed to confirm its attendance amid tensions with Pakistan and it was cancelled.—AFP