Indian Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) President L.K. Advani, a man once seen as a "Hindu hardliner", will visit Pakistan for a week from Monday, Indo-Asian News Service reported Saturday.

Advani, one of India's best known politicians today, will call on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Advani will also hold talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and opposition leaders.

But the highlight of his eight-day visit - his second to Pakistan since 1979 when he was information and broadcasting minister - would be his journey to that part of Karachi where he was born and the St. Patrick's High School. He had gone to the school in 1979.

Advani was born in the Sindh provincial capital, and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) shortly before India's independence in 1947 when his family, like millions like him, quit the newly created Pakistan to begin life anew.

Originally, the upcoming trip was to be a personal visit. But the Pakistani government extended him a formal invitation, turning it into an official trip.

Source: Xinhua