WASHINGTON, Sept 26: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s visit to the United States, already postponed twice, has now been rescheduled for Nov 1, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

“The White House has been informed and Islamabad is now waiting for confirmation,” said a senior diplomatic source. “The visit will be announced as soon as the White House confirms the date.”

This is the second time that the White House has been asked to confirm a date for the prime minister’s visit. The White House had earlier confirmed a meeting between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Aziz on July 29. But Islamabad baffled diplomatic observers in Washington by cancelling the visit days before the scheduled meeting between President Bush and Mr Aziz.

A statement issued by the White House on July 6 had said: “President Bush looks forward to working with the prime minister to build on shared long-term vision for US-Pakistan relations.”

The announcement made it clear that the decision to postpone the visit was taken in Islamabad. A two-paragraph statement issued later by the Pakistan Foreign Office did not cite any reason for the postponement. It merely said: “The visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the United States and Canada being planned towards the end of the month has been postponed.”

Pakistani media quoted Ambassador Jehangir Karamat as saying that certain internal developments and domestic compulsions caused the government to defer the visit. Some sources in Islamabad pointed out that another reason for putting off the US trip was growing criticism in some circles of the prime minister’s frequent foreign visits.

The Indian media, however, claimed that Mr Aziz postponed the visit after Washington indicated to Islamabad that his “welcome” would be many notches lower than that accorded to the Indian Premier Manmohan Singh.