Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday in New Delhi over lunch. He will later go to the famous 13th century Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer. This will be the first visit to India by a Pakistani Head of State since 2005.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said last night that the President has accepted the invitation of Dr Manmohan Singh. He said Mr. Zardari will visit Ajmer in Rajasthan on a private visit for ziarat and prayers at the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Gharib Nawaz and return to Islamabad the same day.

The visit comes against the backdrop of several steps taken by India and Pakistan in recent months to normalise bilateral relations, especially in trade. Mr Zardari and Dr Singh had last met on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Russia in 2009.