PTI NEW DELHI / AJMER Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will be accompanied by a 40-member delegation when he arrives in New Delhi on a “private visit” during which he will have lunch with the Prime Minister and pay obeisance at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.

There is a minister in that delegation which comprises the President’s family members, senior officials of the Presidency and a media contingent, sources said, without naming any particular minister.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will host a lunch which will be preceded by a meeting between the two leaders, they said. “We are still in discussion”, they said when asked if Home Minister P Chidambaram will be part of the Prime Minister’s delegation since there are reports that Interior Minister Rehman Malik could be accompanying the President.

Sources kept insisting that it was a “private visit” of Zardari and India had conveyed that if it was convenient, the Prime Minister would host a lunch for him here. The two leaders had last met in 2009 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Russia.

On the agenda of the meeting, the sources said, “All issues of interest will be raised...The lunch is preceded by a meeting between the Prime Minister and President Zardari,” but refused to give any details of matters that are likely to figure.

The sources said the Pakistan President will go to Jaipur and from there will head to Ajmer. Meanwhile, Senior officials in Ajmer on Wednesday held a meeting to fine-tune and coordinate preparations for Pakistan Zardari’s visit on April 8
District Collector Manju Rajpal directed officials of the district administration and other concerned departments to make proper arrangements for the Zardari’s visit to Dargah Sharif.

The DM and SP discussed security structure and arrangements that will be in place during the high-profile visit. As per the tentative schedule, Zardari would spend half an hour inside the shrine of sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti, in the evening of April 8
“Zardari would arrive at Sanganer airport in Jaipur from New Delhi in a special aircraft at 3.10 PM and leave for Ajmer in helicopter after ten minutes. The helicopter would land at Ghughara helipad on the outskirts of Ajmer at 4.10 PM from where he will travel to Dargah by road,” Additional District Collector Jagdish Purohit said.

“He will be in Dargah by 4.40 PM and leave for the helipad on 5.10 PM and thereafter he will leave for Jaipur,” he said. Besides the officials of different departments, Sohel Khan of Dargah committee was also present in the meeting, another official said.