ISLAMABAD     -    India has invited Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the middle of March and May this year respectively for meetings under Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Diplomatic sources confided to the Nation that an invitation for chief justice of Pakistan to attend a meeting of the chief justices of supreme courts of SCO member countries has been delivered to the foreign office by Indian High Commission in Islamabad. The meeting of the chief justices of SCO countries would be held in the middle of March this year in Goa, India.

Sources in the foreign office said the invitation for chief Justice of Pakistan has been forwarded to chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and it would be decided by him to attend the moot or otherwise.

A similar invitation for foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has also been delivered to foreign office by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto has been invited for the SCO foreign ministers’ conference expected in the middle of May this year. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, however, would consult Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for attending SCO FM conference and accordingly communicate the decision to the Indian government.

If confirmed, it would be the first ever visit to India by the chief justice of Pakistan   and foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

However, observers are attaching great importance to the expected visit by foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to India and hoped that it may lead to ice melting between Pakistan and India.