India, Pakistan foreign ministers dine over ghazals by Ghulam Ali

Over 'ghazals' by maestro Ghulam Ali, Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan dined at the end of their hectic deliberations on various bilateral issues. Ali sang 'dil mein ek leher si uthi hai abhi, koi taza hawa chali hai abhi' among his other popular numbers, which enthralled the audience at the dinner hosted by Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for her visiting Indian counterpart S M Krishna on Saturday night. The lyrics of the ghazal seemed to have captured the essence of the current Indo-Pak relations. Other ghazals crooned by Ali included 'chupke, chupke raat din'. The dinner was hosted at the Marriott Hotel, the scene of a major terror attack in September 2008 which had killed 54 people. The dinner was also attended by members of the respective delegations of the two Foreign Ministers. It came after talks between Krishna and Khar during which they reviewed the last round of parleys on all bilateral issues, including terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir and Siachen, and chalked out the roadmap for future round of discussions. The two countries on Saturday finally made progress on people-to-people contact by inking pacts on a new visa regime and cultural exchanges, but there was no headway on New Delhi's concerns on the Mumbai terror attacks case, with Islamabad only assuring that it will bring to book the perpetrators as per its law.