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Advani grabs front pages, called 'son of soil' Publish Date : 6/1/2005 2:01:00 PM Source : Asia News In a clear admission that he matters in India, the Pakistani media Tuesday gave prominent coverage to the visit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Karachi-born L.K. Advani. While one Sindhi newspaper called him "a son of Sindh", other national dailies described him as a politician who can contribute in a major way to the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan. "Advani's visit to Pakistan at this juncture can play a very important role in the resolution of all the (bilateral) disputes," said the widely circulated Urdu daily the Jang. The paper pointed out that it was when the BJP was ruling India that New Delhi and Islamabad realised the need to normalise relations. All English and Urdu newspapers prominently reported on their front pages the arrival of Advani from New Delhi Monday night in Islamabad after a brief halt in Lahore. All of them carried photographs too. His flight to Islamabad was delayed by heavy rains in the capital. The rightwing Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt, however, took a potshot at Advani, saying it was "people like Advani" who scuttled peace moves between India and Pakistan when President Pervez Musharraf met then Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Agra in 2001. "It is good that Advani has realised the need of friendly relations with Pakistan," said the paper, quoting his statement in New Delhi that the BJP was working for "friendly" relations with Pakistan. Sindhi newspapers greatly appreciated Advani's trip to Pakistan, his first since 1979 and his second since his family quit Karachi in the wake of India's independence in 1947. Besides meeting Pakistani leaders, Advani is to travel to his birthplace in Karachi and attend a function in the school where he studied. "It is a welcome step that the Indian government and opposition are working together for improving relations with Pakistan," said the Sindhi-language paper Ibrat. "The people and land of Sindh welcome Advani wholeheartedly... For us he's a son of Sindh," said the paper. Dawn merely quoted Advani as saying that Pakistan-India peace was a key to the development of South Asia. The Daily Times reported the trip on similar lines, saying it was Advani's BJP which took the initiative to improve relations with Pakistan, paving the way for a congenial atmosphere for peace talks.
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