UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to arrive in the capital Islamabad on 10 March as part of a week-long visit to South Asia. Marking his first official visit to Pakistan, the Secretary-General will meet with President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar and Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, on 11 March. He will also hold a series of discussions at the Foreign Ministry, and with United Nations officials working in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On Monday Annan will visit the Shamshatoo refugee camp and makeshift settlement in Jalozai on the outskirts of Peshawar in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, before travelling to the Khyber Pass. The focus of Annan's mission will be on regional stability issues as well as the plight of Afghan refugees who have temporarily relocated to Pakistan. He will be fully supportive of a comprehensive Pakistan-India dialogue and will listen carefully to the concerns of his interlocutors, according to a statement by the UN Information Centre.
The Secretary-General is accompanied by a delegation including the Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast. After Pakistan, the Secretary-General will travel to Nepal, Bangladesh and India, before returning to New York on 18 March.
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