May 10, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1424

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NEW DELHI, May 9: Indian and Pakistani parliamentarians on Friday agreed to isolate fundamentalist forces from their countries.

A delegation of Pakistani MPs, mostly from opposition parties, arrived here by Wagah on Thursday.

They met several Indian opposition MPs and intellectuals on Friday at the start of a week-long tour of India.

“Pakistani and Indian parliamentarians agreed to isolate fundamentalist forces in both countries, to remove obstacles in the path of normalization of bilateral relations,” Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee told reporters after a meeting with the visitors at his residence.

“Both sides agreed that fundamentalist forces existed in the two countries and were hampering the process of establishment of peace,” said Mr Chatterjee.

The delegation is on a goodwill visit at the invitation of the India-Pakistan Forum for Peace and Democracy as part of efforts to improve ties between the two neighbours.

There were some reports that the ruling National Democratic Alliance, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, were boycotting the visitors as their representatives had not shown up for any of the meetings with them.

But junior foreign minister Vinod Khanna denied this, saying: “It was a BJP-backed initiative to start the peace process with Pakistan. It doesn’t make sense not to meet the MPs from Pakistan. But I believe they are on a private visit so there is no question of the government’s involvement.”

Speaking for the visiting delegation, Pakistan’s Ishaq Khan Khakwani said the reception had been warm and above expectations.

“We have come here to meet as many sections of the Indian society as possible. We are with you in going the whole distance to further improve our friendly relations.

“I assure you that I will apprise our government of all the positive fallout that may emerge from our talks,” Mr Khakwani said.

“We have come carrying a message of peace from Pakistan and we are represented by various parties in our parliament. I am happy that our preliminary talks also have leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and we hope to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also,” he said.

MNA and former editor of Herald, Sherry Rehman said the prime aim of the delegation was to ease the ‘tension’ prevailing between the two countries.

Mr Saleem Jan Mazari told a TV channel that India and Pakistan should consider forming a massive market which could be bigger than China. “We should at least consider an economic union on the model of EU, which could include Bangladesh and other Saarc countries.”

The Pakistani delegation comprises Senator Shujaul Mulk, Senator Dr Shahzad Waseem, M.P. Bhandara, Shakeela Rashid, Dr Syed Gulab Jamal, Saleem Jan Mazari, Sherry Rehman, Akhtar Kanju, Ali Shah, Senator Sarwan Khan Kakar and group leader Khakwani.

The Indian parliamentarians were represented by Chatterjee, Mulayam Singh Yadav, former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda, Shivraj Patil, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Hannan Mollah and Nilotpal Basu.

“I am in favour of more and more such meetings because people-to-people contact will contribute towards better understanding of each others’ problems and improve our relations,” Deve Gowda said.

During their week-long unofficial visit to the country, the MPs would be visiting Ajmer, Agra, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad.