KARACHI, Oct 25: A member of the Lok Sabha from occupied Kashmir, visiting Pakistan alongwith several other Indian peace activists, on Saturday called for providing opportunities to political leaders and intellectuals on either side of the Line of Control to interact and deliberate on their future in order to pave the way for the resolution of the Kashmiri question.
Abdur Rashid Shaheen, Lok Sabha member from Baramula in the occupied Kashmir, during a Meet the Press Programme of the Karachi Press Club supported a proposal from Sardar Abdul Qayyum for the establishment of a ‘Peace Park’ along the LoC for enabling the Kashmiris on both the sides to interact.
He said serious efforts were being made to find a solution to the issue, adding that in Pakistan the Indian delegation had exchanged views with the people concerned to arrive at a path that could lead to lasting peace in the region. He also expressed the hope that Islamabad would consider allowing a bus service across the LoC.
The peace activists from India were supportive of the 12 proposals put forth by the government of Atal Behari Vajpayee the other day. They, however, did not focus on the ongoing carnage in Kashmir which had vitiated the regional atmosphere.
While expressing these views they stressed the need for curtailing defence expenditure by the two countries. Mr Shaheen said people of Kashmir remained the ‘core issue’. Emphasizing his viewpoint he said: “As long as we remain prisoners of the stated positions of our respective governments and as long as we keep on piling up the suspicions, we may not be able to serve the humanity, we may not be able to address to the problems that people have in both the countries.
“We have to make a start somewhere,” he said, “and that start can be made keeping the core issue alive. People of Kashmir are the core issue, I believe.”
Mr Shaheen said an “exploration programme” had been started with the help of “elders in both the countries” and appreciated the existence of reciprocity for peace. He was hopeful that in the coming days the two governments would succeed in their efforts.
Nirmala Deshpande, a former member of the Indian Rajiya Sabha and leader of the Association of Peoples of Asia, was evasive when asked whether New Delhi was prepared to give Kashmiris the right to decide about their future.
After avoiding a direct reply, she said first the violence should stop, people should get the right to live and then decide upon what repercussions the possible future steps would have.
Being supportive of the Indian government’s peace overtures, she was of the view that only a lasting dialogue could take the peoples of the two countries, and the region, out of the prevailing dangerous situation.
Emphasizing the need for encouraging people-to-people contact, she welcomed the recent 12-points of the Vajpayee government, “which are aimed at easing and increasing travel facilities between the two countries”.
“As a peace activist I consider it a positive step which has created an opening for the peace-loving people on either side of the divide,” she said, emphasizing that people of the two countries abhorred war and militarization.
Ms Deshpande also supported the proposal for initiating the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, opening of Khokhrapar route and ferry service between Karachi and Mumbai.
Earlier, KPC’s President Sabihuddin Ghausi expressed concern over the growing militancy and intolerance in India and said the recent statements of its defence and interior ministers were particularly adding to the problems and misery of the poor people of the two countries.
