Former Pakistan President Zardari to have Iftar with US vice president

Former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is going to have an Iftar dinner with US Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday. He reached Washington on Sunday evening and was received by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani. This was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a former ruler was given full diplomatic protocol by a Pakistani ambassador.

Zardari’s arrival was announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi at a think tank here in Washington.

He said that the government had decided to set a precedent by sending the ambassador to receive Zardari, adding that it was time that “political witch-hunting should come to an end”.