Pak Foreign Minister's three-day US visit from May 18

C K Arora in Washington

Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan is arriving in Washington on May 18 for a three-day visit of the US.

During his visit, Khan will brief the Clinton administration about the recent meeting between Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Maldives, where they attended the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. The US has welcomed the Gujral-Sharif meeting.

During his visit which marks the first high-level contact between the Clinton administration and the Nawaz Sharief government which assumed office in February, Khan will meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defence Secretary William S Cohen and US President Bill Clinton's national security advisor Samuel R Berger.

One of the most important issues to be raised by Ayub Khan during the bilateral talks would be Washington's decision to refund the payment made by Pakistan before 1990 for F-16 fighter bombers. Under the Brown amendment, passed in 1995-96, the US will sell these aircraft to a third country and its sale proceeds would go to Pakistan as compensation. But the US has so far failed to find a buyer.

Pakistani diplomats said that Khan would take up the economic aspect of the Brown amendment which has remained unimplemented.

The United States suspended its economic aid to Pakistan in October 1990 in protest against the latter's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Pakistan used to get about $ 650 million a year from the US in the 1980s.

Though the possibility of resumption of bilateral economic aid appears bleak Khan is expected to lobby support for private sector investment.

Pakistan is trying its best to avoid any discussion on the controversy over the arrest in Islamabad last month of an employee of the US Drug Enforcement Agency. The arrest was apparently in retaliation for the arrest of a Pakistani Air Force officer earlier in the US for smuggling drugs.

Pakistani diplomats say the issue had been tackled discreetly and firmly. Ayyaz Baloch, a Pakistani national, has been arrested on charges of anti-state activities and drug smuggling and his case will be dealt with strictly according to Pakistani law.

UNI