ISLAMABAD, June 21, Reuter: China and Pakistan are likely to compare notes on their thorny relations with India during an official visit to Islamabad by Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, beginning today, diplomats said.

The two close allies both have longstanding territorial disputes with New Delhi and share a disapproval of some of India’s foreign policies.

Other topics in Zhao’s talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo will include the Afghanistan conflict, the diplomats said. Both governments support the rebels battling the Soviet backed administration in Kabul.

Pakistan’s official APP news agency reported that economic, commercial and technical joint ventures were likely to be discussed during the four day visit.

No major initiatives or agreements are expected and the visit will probably assume the character of a celebration of the warm relations between the two states, the diplomats said.

One pointed out that Zhao, who is also acting Chief of the ruling Communist Party, was at riving after touring five east European countries and was likely to be tired.

The two countries neighbors through Pakistan’s control of the northern part of disputed Kashmir have been close allies for many years. Peking has cooperated in economic projects in Pakistan and in the past sold it warplanes.

Zhao chose Pakistan for his first foreign trip as Prime Minister in 1981 and Junejo returned the compliment in November, 1985, with a visit to Peking.

Sponsors of the plan want to bring in the Moslem fundamentalist Jamaat I-Ulema-I Pakistan, and the TehrikIIstiglal party, which split from the alliance last year, as well as the NPP.

The alliance meeting in Karachi was marred by the banning of a leading left-winger, Begum Nasim Wali Khan.

A senior member of the pro Soviet Awami National Party, she was detained at Karachi airport and sent back to her native northwest frontier province.

Bhutto told Reuters the Pakistani government had refused permission for another woman politician to visit Moscow. Begum Ashraf Abbasi, of the PPP, had been due to leave yesterday.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 26, 1987