"These are baseless and frivolous charges. I don't want to comment on it any more," Advani told reporters in reply to a question about charges against him about allegedly plotting to assassinate Jinnah and other Muslim leaders.

Advani is currently on a visit to Pakistan with his family members at the invitation of Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

According to Advani's schedule, during his visit to Karachi, he will lay a wreath at Jinnah's mausoleum there.

The Pakistan government has now virtually closed the case against Advani.

A senior interior ministry official said the case was pending with the Karachi police. "I know there is a case against him, but now he is coming as our guest and we are not going to open it," he told IANS on condition of anonymity.

In January 2002, when India and Pakistan were in the midst of a military standoff on their borders and pushing their lists of most wanted criminals, Islamabad, according to media reports, came up with an extradition list that included Advani, who was then home minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government.

The News had then quoted sources as saying that Advani was a proclaimed offender ever since the case was registered Sep 10, 1947 in Karachi.

Advani and 17 others were charged with criminal conspiracy to assassinate Jinnah, then the governor-general, prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan, Khawaja Nazimuddin and other Pakistani leaders.

While the police arrested six of them, the remaining 12 including Advani were described as absconders.

The case against them was placed in a "dormant file". Under an agreement between India and Pakistan, the six people arrested were extradited to India Sep 19, 1948.