Guests discuss Obama’s visit to India

Islamabad
Visit of US President Barrack Obama to India prominently figured in discussions between the guests of reception on 66th Republic Day of India on Monday evening in a local hotel here.
The guests turned up in large number despite tension and brewing hostilities between Pakistan and India. The Obama visit and its impact on the region with special reference to Pakistan was thoroughly deliberated by the guests.The host High Commissioner TCA Raghavan commenting on developments in the region said that US-India defence cooperation wasn't against any other country. He was of the view that ambiance for the talks between Pakistan and India should be made conducive for the purpose since in the atmosphere of terrorism dialogue couldn't take place. He claimed that India had in-depth discussion with Pakistan on number of issues.
The High Commissioner was visibly happy over the presence of guests in large number. Iranian diplomats and large number of guests were more concerned about the US decisive leaning towards India and viewed that it was not a good omen for the region.
The Indian hosts were interested to ascertain the impact and purpose of the visit of Pakistan's Army Chief General Raheel Sharif to China. They were trying to equate it with the visit of the US president to their country.
Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong was conspicuous with his presence who returned Islamabad early in the day from Beijing where he had important consultations. To a query he termed the visit of Pakistan Army Chief to his country extremely fruitful as he is meeting top military and civilian leadership of China during his stay.
The ambassador said that Chinese President Xi Ping will be visiting Pakistan soon but schedule hasn't been finalised. It is likely that Chinese president will be visiting Pakistan in March as the Chinese authorities had indicated earlier that the maiden visit of the Chinese new president would take place in the first quarter of the year. The Chinese president was due to visit Pakistan in September last year but Imran Khan's sit-in scuttled it.
The situation in Pakistan was yet another important subject under discussion amid the gusts. They were surprised that the government is clueless about the crisis one after other. It must deal with the situation with strong and assertive hands, they opined.
Federal Minister Lieutenant General (R) Abdul Qadir Baloch was the chief guest and interestingly no cake cutting ceremony was performed in the reception and no photograph was displayed in the backdrop of the stage. In normal practice the portraits of the heads of state and government are displayed as mark of respect. It is understood that Indian President Parnab Mukerjee isn't from the ruling party and it could be cause of not placing photographs of the two presidents. The national anthems of the two countries were played on the arrival of the chief guest.
Among the prominent guests of reception were Iqbal Zafar Jhagra central Secretary General of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Senator Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Senator Anwer Baig, Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel, Senator Babar Awan, Akram Shaikh Advocate, PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, former federal minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Pakistan's former high commissioners Bashir Wali Muhammad Khan (Baish), Aziz Ahmad Khan, and Senator Ms. Nasreen Jalil.