Jaswant Singh to promote his book in Pakistan

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh will visit Pakistan later this week to promote his book on Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Online news agency reported.

Although Singh's visit to Pakistan has not yet been made public, he may arrive here Friday, the report said.

The former Indian external affairs minister was expelled from the BJP last week for praising Jinnah in his book "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence", abruptly ending his three-decade-long membership with the party.

Singh will sign copies of the book at a bookstore in Islamabad before heading to Karachi at the weekend.

The organisers are keeping it secret at the moment as the visit has not yet been fully finalised. Invitations are being passed to Islamabad's who's who by word of mouth only, according to the report Tuesday.

The 600-page book, the first recent work by an Indian in praise of Pakistan's founder, viewed as all the more significant because its author is a senior politician, it said.

The book is a top seller at 'Mr. Books' (in Islamabad), the only place in Pakistan where it is available, the report added.

The bookstore had ordered a couple of hundred copies of the book from India, and despite its high price tag of Pakistani Rs.1995 (about $24) - all are sold out, it said.

The owner of the bookstore was apologetic about the price but said he had incurred heavy costs transporting the books from India to Pakistan via Dubai.

There are only two weekly flights from Delhi to Lahore, and the quickest way to ship in the books was through a third country, the report said citing the owner. Another bookstore in Islamabad, Saeed Book Bank, said it was expecting a consignment of 500 copies soon.

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