PTI

Islamabad, Apr 8: Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar has said she will be very happy if her singing can improve relations between India and Pakistan.

Mangeshkar, who has never visited Pakistan, said she was once invited to perform there during the rule of the late Gen Zia-ul-Haq but the show was called off at the last minute.

"Everything was finalised and then the show was cancelled at the last minute. The organisers said they could not take responsibility for the show," she told a private news channel in an interview.

When the interviewer told her that a Pakistani poet had written a poem in which an Indian and a Pakistani arguing over Kashmir in a tea shop stopped squabbling after the owner of the establishment played a Lata Mangeshkar song, she said, "Aisa ho toh bahut achcha hoga (If this happens, it will be very good)."

Mangeshkar said, "I would love to visit Pakistan but no one has invited me in the last 20 years. If someone invites me, I will come."

The singer also recalled her long association with her late friend Noorjehan Pakistan's Mallika-e-Tarranum or queen of melody. "When she migrated to Pakistan after the partition of India, I would call her up every day. We kept in touch but I could never meet her again," the 78-year old singer said.

Mangeshkar, who is working on an album titled "Sarhadein" (Borders) that features four singers each from Pakistan and India, said, "We have recorded three songs so far. We need more songs -- good songs. But the album will be released soon."