KARACHI, Feb 11: A large number of people, accompanied by their children, participated in a Basant Amn Mela, organized by the Joint Action Committee for Peace (JACP), in the Arts Council of Pakistan on Monday.

Prominent cartoonists and artists conducted an art workshop in which a large number of schoolchildren participated. Children did paintings, made drawings and cartoons highlighting the theme of love and peace.

Schoolchildren and stage artists also staged tableaux and short plays stressing the need for peaceful coexistence between Pakistan and India.

Speakers on the occasion urged the governments of India and Pakistan to sit at the negotiating table and sort out their problems through peaceful dialogue.

They said the JACP had been organizing demonstrations, etc to press the governments of both countries to take steps to ease tension and have brotherly relations.

They said the majority of the people in the two countries did not want war or even tension, and tension were created by a few people having their vested interests.

The majority in both the countries were poor but their governments spent a large portion of their budget on non-development sectors which left very little to be spent on the provision of basic facilities such as health and education.

The organizers also distributed kites among the participants of the Mela which they flew to celebrate the Basant festival, which is celebrated on both sides of the border.

Poets recited their poetry relating to the subject of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Artists sang national and folk songs.