LAHORE, June 17: Six Indian parliamentarians arrived here on Tuesday via Wagah on an eight-day unofficial peace mission.
Two more delegates are expected to arrive on Wednesday and another will reach here via Dhaka (Bangladesh) later on, said noted Indian journalist and parliamentarian Kuldip Nayyar, who is coordinating the visit, on their arrival at Wagah.
The Indian lawmakers are visiting Pakistan on an invitation of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy.
Those who received the Indian lawmakers at the border included Dr Mubashir Hasan, former HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir and rights activist Hussain Naqi.
“Such issues as Kashmir, trade and culture will be discussed during our stay here,” Mr Nayyar told reporters.
Saying that the delegates had arrived here with the sole purpose of bringing the people of the two countries closer, he added an Indo-Pakistan Parliamentarians’ Forum was in the offing to further the cause of peace in the region.
The rights activists warmly greeted Indian delegates.
Answering to a question, Mr Nayyar said he did not have any solution to the Kashmir dispute. “The people of the two countries have to sit together to evolve a consensus over the issue. Had I been prime minister of India I would have in a better position to tell you a simple and straight formula to settle the Kashmir problem,” he said in answer to questions on the possible solution to the issue.
Replying to another query, he refuted that there was any US pressure on Pakistan and India to start the peace process and said the two countries instead should keep the US away if they really wanted to resolve their contentious issues.
Terming aggressive statements from both the sides as political rhetoric, he said all was irrelevant as the people of both countries were interested in peace. “The requirement of visa should be scrapped forthwith and the rail and road links be resumed without any delay as people from both the sides are yearning to meet one another.”
Dr Mubashir Hasan said the people-to-people contact would put pressure on both governments and they would have to establish enduring peace. “It will take some time as progress may sometimes be steady and faster and sometimes slower, and there may even be setbacks. But the final result will be positive.”
“It is just a breath of fresh air in a suffocating environment,” Ms Asma Jehangir commented on the parliamentarians’ peace initiative.
She said the governments from both the sides did not appear sincere to peace, adding such visits were important as far as people-to-people contact was concerned. “It will let them exchange their views on different issues.” She said the two governments would have to start talks because “they were under (international) pressure (to do so).”
The delegates who arrived, Shahid Siddique, Kartar Singh Duggan, Abdur Rashid, Lakshman Seth, Pawan Kumar and Kuldip Nayyar will also visit Karachi and Islamabad before returning home on June 25. During their stay here, they will interact with politicians, businessmen, parliamentarians and rights activists.
LAHORE, June 17: Six Indian parliamentarians arrived here on Tuesday via Wagah on an eight-day unofficial peace mission.
