ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Pakistan's proposal to set up a South Asian Parliamentary Forum has been approved by the World Parliamentary Forum in its fourth annual meeting held in the Indian city of Mumbai, said People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed.

Speaking at a press conference with another party MNA Zamarrud Khan here on Thursday, Chaudhry Manzoor said the proposed forum would provide a platform to the parliamentarians of the Saarc countries to discuss the issues and problems being faced by the peoples of the respective countries.

Ch Manzoor, who has recently returned from India after attending the World Parliamentary Forum meeting, said after reaching a consensus on any issue, the members would put the matter before their respective parliaments for further action.

Giving an example, he said in India and Pakistan, anti- terrorism laws were of a similar nature and there was need to improve them. He said another meeting of the South Asian parliamentarians would be held in May or June this year in Pakistan to finalize the plan of setting up of the new forum. Giving details of his Indian visit, the PPP MNA said 20 members of the parliament belonging to almost all the major political parties of the country participated in the meeting.

Before heading to Mumbai, he said the parliamentarians had held a meeting with the Indian president in New Delhi and discussed the ongoing peace process. He said the Pakistani MPs had asked the Indian president to impose ban on such movies which were spreading hatred among the people of the two countries. He said the Indian president had called for increasing visits of delegations of children and the journalists of the two countries. The PPP MNA said they wanted to increase people-to-people contact between Pakistan and India to put pressure on the two governments to continue the peace process.

Ch Manzoor said the people of India and Pakistan believed that the ongoing peace process was due to foreign pressure. He said there was also common perception that poverty was constantly increasing in the two countries due to stockpiling of weapons.

He said during the three-day meeting about 300 participants of the World Parliamentary Forum discussed various issues like impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the third world countries, peace in Asia and the new world order. He said the participants from India and Pakistan were of the view that both the countries should adopt a joint strategy to tackle the post-WTO regime issues. Ch Manzoor said a final declaration was approved at the end of the meeting through which the members announced to support democracy and democratic practices in all the countries.