Islamabad - Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is expected to travel to New Delhi on July 14th for a landmark summit with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, a senior spokesman has said. This follows a surprise move last month when Mr Vajpayee invited Mr Musharraf to hold talks on the disputed Kashmir region, breaking a two-year deadlock.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has claimed that arbitrary arrests, detentions and excessive force were increasingly being used to silence critics of the government in Kashmir. In a statement, Amnesty cited the beating and detention of political activists last week following public protests over the killing of six women.
In a separate development, Pakistan's military government has capped defence spending and slashed its deficit in a 751-billion rupee ($12.5 billion) budget unveiled by the Finance Minister, Mr Shaukat Aziz, yesterday. For the second successive year, the government of General Pervez Musharraf decided not to increase the military budget in a bid to overcome growing poverty and a balance-of-payments deficit.