Pakistan will participate in the three-day high profile festival of first United Nations Vesak celebrations in Colombo, starting from May 12 to 14 this year.

The arrangements for Pakistan’s participation in the festival were discussed in a meeting between Federal Secretary for National History and Literary Heritage Division, Engineer Aamir Hasan and Counsellor and Head of Chancery High Commission of Sri Lanka N.M.M Anas.

It was decided in the meeting that a delegation from Pakistan will participate in the festival and display Buddhist and Gandhara Heritage relics through a stall to represent country’s rich historical and cultural heritage.

Aamir Hasan informed the counsellor that following the previous tradition, this year also Pakistan will invite a Sri Lankan delegation to participate in the Vesak festival to be held in Pakistan in the last week of May.

The festival will be held at a special UN Vesak Zone around Sri Lankan Parliament building. Anas thanked the Secretary NHLH Division, Amir Hasan for the hospitality extended by the Pakistan side last year and termed Islamabad city as a ‘second paradise’.

Aamir Hasan presented a special book on ‘Gandhara Civilization’ to the Sri Lankan Counsellor and hoped the brotherly relations between the two countries will be further strengthened in the future

- APP