New Delhi: Ahead of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's visit to India, some members of his family have arrived here on a six-day private visit. They are Musharaff's mother Zarin, son Bilal and brother Javed. The visit ia a fallout of Zarin's desire to visit the place where she was born and spent most of her early life, the Neharwali Haveli . She has since visited the Haveli in Delhi's walled city which Zarin and Syedabd Syed Musharraf-ud-din, newly married, made their home. The general too spent his early childhood years here before the family fled to Pakistan after partition. Mushraff's mother is keen to visit the Aligarh Muslim University and Allahabad where she had her Education. Musharraf will come to watch the last one-dayer of the Indo-Pak cricket series in New Delhi on April 17.

When Zarin visited the Haveli in old Delhi's congested Daryaganj area on Thursday, the entire locality and rooftops was teeming with enthusiastic people from all walks, including men, women and children, as the octogenarian Zarin, along with her son Javed and Musharraf's son Bilal, surveyed the building that once was the family's abode. The trio spent around 30 minutes inside the building, interacting with the current occupants of the house. A frail Zarin sitting on wheelchair recalled her memories of the family's ancestral place which she was visiting after a gap of nearly 13 years. "Everything seems to have undergone a change here. There is a new sky here. I remember meeting Aruna Asaf Ali the last time I came here, which was in 1982," remarked Zarin. The trio also took part in the birthday celebrations of ten-year- old Aiswarya, a resident of the haveli. Deputy Speaker of Delhi Assembly Shoaib Iqbal received the Pakistani guests at Daryaganj.  Musharraf's mother and other members of the family have been India this past week, watching the first Test between the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams at Mohali on the outskirts of Chandigarh. They will be leaving the Indian capital today to visit Aligarh, Agra and Lucknow and may also drop in at Kolkata's Eden Gardens to see the ongoing second Test before leaving India early next week.
Mar 17, 2005