Pak keen to learn Bihar model of development: Salman Bashir

Pakistan High Commissioner in India Salman Bashir on Thursday appreciated the rapid development in Bihar and said his country was keenly awaited the proposed visit of chief minister Nitish Kumar next month to know more from him about the 'Bihar Model' of development.

Pakistan High Commissioner in India Salman Bashir on Thursday appreciated the rapid development in Bihar and said his country was keenly awaited the proposed visit of chief minister Nitish Kumar next month to know more from him about the 'Bihar Model' of development.

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"Pakistan is fascinated by rapid strides Bihar has made in a short time...there is a lot of interest in Pakistan to know about the success story of Bihar," Bashir told reporters after meeting the chief minister at his residence in Patna.

Accompanied by his Deputy Babbar Amin, Bashir said this was his first visit to the eastern state and he was really impressed with what had been demonstrated to him about the state.

Kumar will head a 12-member delegation of ministers and officials from the state to Pakistan from November 9-16. He is going there on an invitation of chief minister of Sind and Punjab provinces.

He is scheduled to visit Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and return by road through the Wagah border.

A Pakistani Parliamentarians' delegation to Bihar in August this year had heaped rich praise on the chief minister and commended his success in bringing a turnaround in the state.

To a question on Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist captured alive after the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, Bashir said "it is a judicial process."

Asked about some unpleasant events in the recent times of Pakistani boys leaving Indian brides after marriage and returning to their country, Basir said "there are still many irritants which need to be tackled."

Bashir and Amin accompanied by bureaucrat-turned JD(U) MP NK Singh later went to see Patna museum, Buddha stupa and Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, which holds a unique repository of 21,000 oriental manuscripts and 2.5 lakh printed books.