Hina Rabbani Khar's date with India

 All of 34, Hina Rabbani Khar is Pakistan's first woman Foreign Minister and also the youngest at that. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari justified her appointment, saying it would "send positive signals about the soft image of Pakistan".

Ms Khar touched down in India on Tuesday to take on the peace dialogue forward between the two arch-rivals; the world is waiting in anticipation as to how she handles her first major diplomatic outing and navigates the troubled waters of India-Pakistan relationship.

A postgraduate in hospitality and tourism from the University of Massachusetts, Ms Khar comes from a wealthy feudal family in southern Punjab and owns Lahore's posh Polo Lounge, a haunt of the rich and the powerful. Here she is seen greeting BJP patriarch L K Advani.

 Ms Khar has become Pakistan's 26th foreign minister at a time when her country is suffering perhaps the worst image crisis and is being repeatedly singled out as a patron for terrorists and jihadists.Ms Khar entered politics in 2002 and became a member of national assembly of the PML-Q party, affiliated with then Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Her political ascent has been meteoric ever since, propelled by favourable circumstances. Barely four days after then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was removed, she was named Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on July 20, 2011.

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