Holbrooke cancels Pak visit as Zardari, Qureshi not in town

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Tuesday confirmed that U.S. Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, would not be visiting Islamabad for talks with the Pakistani leadership.

Holbrooke was earlier scheduled to be in Islamabad on Wednesday and Thursday, but sources were quoted by the Dawn as saying that prior commitments had led to a cancellation of the visit.

Holbrooke was to visit Islamabad reportedly to brief the Pakistani leadership about last week’s US-India Strategic Dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to China, the outcome of the peace jirga in Kabul and also the agenda to be taken up at Pakistan-US official-level talks beginning Friday.

The visit was also postponed because neither Pakistan President Asif Zardari nor Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are in Islamabad. Zardari is scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tashkent, while Qureshi is away in Istanbul for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.

Holbrooke has visited Islamabad seven times after assuming charge as Special Envoy. (ANI)