Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif is keen to visit Jammu and Kashmir to trace his ancestral roots, the former Pakistani premier told visiting People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti.
Mufti, who travelled to Islamabad last week to participate in a conference, had met Sharif in Lahore on Thursday.
She invited Sharif, whose party is a member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party-led coalition, to visit Jammu and Kashmir after he expressed his desire to come to the state.
'He is a son of the soil. Keeping all political thoughts aside, we will warmly welcome him,' she told the Daily Times before her departure to New Delhi.
Mufti said Sharif had expressed a desire to visit Shopian, a town in southern Jammu and Kashmir from where his ancestors had migrated to Pakistan.
Recently, Sharif's close aides had said that he wanted to travel to Srinagar to inaugurate a hospital being built by his friend and well-known cardiologist Fayaz Shawl.
Mufti also expressed concern at the volatile security situation and 'chaos' in Pakistan saying it reminded her of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir some years back.
'Of late, the violence level is going up and there is a sense of insecurity in many areas of Pakistan, which reminds me of what Jammu and Kashmir was like some years back.'
Mufti said that one of her two daughters had advised her to give up politics after Pakistan People's Party chairperson and former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December last year.
Mufti was in Madina when she learnt of Bhutto's death. Mufti, who has escaped attempts on her life, had received a frantic phone call from her daughter, a college student in New Delhi, who urged her to abandon politics.
Mufti, who has two daughters and is a single parent, told The News: 'My elder daughter called me and said, 'Ma please give up politics, we don't want you to be killed. Look what happened to Benazir.'
The PDP president, who was on maiden visit to Pakistan, said not being able to meet Benazir Bhutto was a deep regret associated with her trip.
'I regret that Benazir Bhutto was not there. I would have loved to meet her and I could have never thought of visiting Pakistan and not being able to meet Benazir Bhutto,' she said.
'I had never visualised this situation. Whenever I thought of going to Pakistan, I always had this in mind that I am going to meet Benazir.'
Although she may not have 'entirely agreed' with Bhutto's policies, Mufti said she admired the PPP leader's courage and determination in the worst of times.