Begum Zarin Musharraf showered with flowers, gifts in India
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk Report

NEW DELHI (India): Hundreds of people crowded onto rooftops and thronged the narrow lanes of Old Delhi Thursday as President Pervez Musharraf’s mother paid her first visit to her ancestral home in more than 20 years.

Begum Zarin Musharraf was showered with gifts and flowers as she arrived in a wheelchair at the haveli, or traditional ornately decorated home, in India’s former capital now part of greater New Delhi.

Flanked by her grandson Bilal, Mrs Musharraf cut a birthday cake for the nine-year-old daughter of the family presently living in the house.

“Everything seems to have changed here. There is a bit more of the sky visible from here. It really brings back so many memories,” she said of the home where she had lived before the 1947 partition which divided India and Pakistan at their independence from Britain.

Among those who gathered in the hot sun to welcome the respected lady was her former housemaid Anara, who like many Indians uses only one name. “Madam was very happy to see me. All I wanted was to meet her, nothing else,” Anara said.

Bilal Musharraf

Bilal Musharraf said that his grandmother was jubilant as she had for a long time wanted to visit the home again, having last paid a clandestine visit there in the early 1980s.

Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Shoaib Iqbal draped a white shawl around Bilal, who is the son of President Musharraf.

“We chose to present a white cloth as it symbolises peace. We want all the bitterness to flow and only happy memories to remain,” he said.

Begum Zarin Musharraf, who arrived in India Wednesday, told reporters she was happy India and Pakistan were making efforts to establish peaceful relations.

“Good winds are blowing. I hope all the issues between the two countries will be resolved amicably,” she said.

The present occupants of the home, a family of Jains, said they had been thrilled when they were informed Wednesday evening they were to receive important visitors.

“When we heard that she was coming here, we called our whole family for the occasion. It was wonderful as it coincided with the birthday of one of our children and the naming ceremony of another,” said head of the household, Devinder Kumar Jain.

He said the government had allowed them to make the welcoming arrangements and lay on the food and drinks - something which had not been permitted when President Musharraf had visited the house four years ago on the sidelines of an India-Pakistan summit.

Visits Jamia Masjid

Begum Zarin Musharraf also visited the historic Jamia Masjid close to her ancestral home in the heart of Old Delhi.

She was later Thursday to head for the town of Aligarh near New Delhi where she and her husband Mushrafuddin had studied at a Muslim university.

The family would visit Lucknow city Sunday, Pakistani officials said, adding that Begum Zarin Musharraf was also keen to visit the Taj Mahal city of Agra.

President Musharraf is due to visit India on April-17 to watch a cricket match and also meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The South Asian neighbours have been engaged in what they call a ‘composite dialogue’ since January last year aimed at resolving eight bilateral disputes including the thorny problem of Kashmir which is divided between the neighbours.●