Will Musharraf’s wife attend Delhi meeting?

Pakistan will decide in the next two days whether or not first lady Sehba Musharraf would attend a global meet in India, reports Amit Baruah.

Pakistan will decide in the next two days whether or not President Pervez Musharraf's wife would attend an international conference in India later this month, a Pakistani diplomat said on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s first lady Sehba Musharraf has been invited for a UNESCO regional conference on global literacy in New Delhi on November 29-30, but has delayed the decision about her visit.

“Yes, there is an invitation. We will take a decision in a day or two,” a Pakistani diplomat.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the conference, being organised by the Human Resources Development Ministry. Two first ladies - Shiranthi Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka and Zeenat Karzai from Afghanistan have agreed to attend the meeting.

“We have invited first ladies from all eight SAARC countries, Iran and the five Central Asian countries. As of now, we have two confirmations,” Vandana Jena, director-general of the National Literacy Mission, told Hindustan Times.

The Delhi conference is part of a series of regional conferences being organized as a follow up of the White House conference on global literacy hosted by Laura Bush, first lady of the United States and honorary ambassador for the United Nations Literacy Decade, in September 2006.

It is the fourth in the series of six regional conferences being organized covering Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean as a part of major drive to promote literacy at national and international levels. So far, three meetings have been held in Doha, Beijing, and Bamako, Mali.