LAHORE, Jan 15: The Punjab government is according an extraordinary protocol and security to the governor of an Iranian province for his three-day visit to Punjab with a 34-member delegation.

Except the official media and a reporter of a local Urdu daily considered to be close to Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal, no other journalist was allowed even entry to the assembly’s premises to cover the Khorasan governor’s visit to the house on Thursday.

Iranian Consul-General Saeed Kharazai and other consulate officials accompanied the governor to the assembly where the speaker, his deputy Rana Mashhud, provincial ministers Rana Sanaullah, Raja Riaz, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and others welcomed him.

The speaker urged the guest to play his role in earlier completion of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

Gifts were exchanged after an hour-long meeting in which both sides expressed good wishes for each other.

Mr Zadeh may be the first governor for whom welcoming banners and streamers have been hanged in a large number along various city roads.

A senior officer claims that the Punjab government has issued special instructions to accord a warm protocol to the visiting dignitaries for it wants a vast range of trade ties with Iran like with China.

The meetings of various provincial secretaries with the visiting delegations have also been arranged while the guests are also being taken to an industrial exhibition in Faisalabad.