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Musharraf to address Jewish Congress in New York

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: President Musharraf will become the first Pakistani leader to address the American Jewish Congress in New York on September 17, according to a Washington-based online newspaper.

The online publication said in a special report on Tuesday that its story was based on an announcement by the American Jewish Congress, which said the event “may mark a turning point in the relations between our peoples”.

Mansoor Sohail, press minister at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN, told Daily Times that he had no information regarding such an engagement. All he could confirm was that the president would be speaking at the Columbia University as well as attend a community event around a Qawwali fund-raiser organised by Dr Naseem Asharf, chairman of the National Commission for Human Development. President Musharraf’s address would coincide with his visit to New York for the UN Millenium Summit in mid-September. The president is due to arrive in New York on the 13th of that month.

“I am pleased to announce that President Musharraf of Pakistan has accepted an invitation I extended to him last May in his Islamabad office to address the most pressing global problem - the need for Muslims to embrace modernity with openness and tolerance,” the chairman of the American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, Jack Rosen, said in a memo circulated to top leaders of the Jewish community.

The memo also disclosed that Musharraf had indicated that he had tested the domestic Pakistani waters over the Israel issue, and felt that diplomatic ties could only follow an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

Confirming the news, foreign office spokesman Naeem Khan said, “The president has accepted the invitation to speak at the interfaith gathering, which will be attended by Muslim, Jews, Christians and followers of other faiths.”

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