Will invite Manmohan Singh to my oath-taking ceremony: Nawaz

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif today said that he would be "very happy" to invite Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan for his oath-taking ceremony as the new Premier.
"I will be very happy to extend that invitation. If they come it will be a great pleasure," Sharif told reporters at his Raiwind estate here when asked if he would consider inviting Singh.
"I had a call from him yesterday. We had a long chat on the phone and then he extended an invitation to me and I extended an invitation to him.
"We will be very happy to invite him, whether he will come or not is a different issue but I hope that he will visit Pakistan soon," Sharif said.

Sharif has already indicated his desire to normalise "roller-coaster" ties with India.
Prime Minister Singh had yesterday lost no time in congratulating Sharif on his election victory, which will give him his third term as Prime Minister of Pakistan, and invited him to visit India at a mutually convenient time.

In an unusually quick response even as counting of votes was underway in Pakistan, Singh conveyed India's desire to work with him to chart a new course in Indo-Pak relations.
In a letter to Sharif, Prime Minister Singh said, "I look forward to working with you and your government to chart a new course and pursue a new destiny in the relations between our countries. I would also like to extend an invitation to you to visit India at a mutually convenient time."

During the campaign, 63-year-old Sharif had vowed to revive the Indo-Pak peace process which was interrupted in 1999 by the then military ruler Parvez Musharraf who ousted him in a bloodless coup. Sharif had started the peace process with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.