India has invited Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to attend the meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation scheduled for later this year.
The SCO is a key regional forum comprising Pakistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and India. It focuses primarily on the areas of trade, finance, commerce and socio-economic cooperation among SCO member states.
Currently, the presidency of the forum is held by India, which will organise a series of events, including a conference of the chief justices of member states and a moot of the foreign ministers, this year.
The chief justices of the SCO will meet in March while the meeting of the foreign ministers is scheduled for May in Goa. Sources said CJP Bandial and FM Bilawal has not yet responded to the invitations.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbouring countries have remained heightened since Indian revoked the special status of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
