LAHORE, July 4: “You have done wonder in a very short time,” Indian Minister for Punchayati Raj (local government) Mani Shankar Aiyar exclaimed while receiving his birth certificate from District Nazim Mian Amer Mehmood at Jinnah Hall on Wednesday, according to an official handout.

“You have given me a pleasant surprise which the Delhi administration could not give to President General Pervez Musharraf during his visit to India a few years back,” he said. The Delhi administration failed to find the birth record of the president.

As per record of registered births in Lahore, Mr Aiyar was born at Lady Aitcheson Hospital in Lahore on April 9, 1941.

His name registered with the Lahore municipality is Venkata Subramaniam.

According to the birth registration record available at Jinnah Hall, the names of father and mother of the Indian minister are V Sankar Aiyar and Bhagya Lakshmi Sankar Aiyar. His family lived at 44 Lakshmi Mansion.

“Finding of my birth record within few hours by the City District Government of Lahore is a pleasant surprise for me,” Aiyar told reporters. The CGDL has been keeping record of all the births in the provincial capital since 1876.