22 August 2004	Sunday	05 Rajab 1425

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 21: An Indo-Pakistan joint newsmen's delegation, on an official tour of USA, visited the Silicon Valley to meet Indian and Pakistani peace groups working for amity between the two nuclear rivals.

The delegation, invited by the State Department as part of US efforts to promote peace in South Asia, included three journalists from Pakistan (Nisar Iqbal from Dawn, Naveed from The News and Wajahat Ali from Daily Times) and three from India (Avnish Jain from Dainik Bhaskar, Pranab Dhal Sayanth from The Indian Express and Swaraj Thapa from The Economic Times).

The delegation held a roundtable discussion about the current talks between India and Pakistan with a group of Pakistanis and Indians. The Silicon Valley has a large concentration of South Asian population and many peace groups were established in 2002 at the height of tension between Pakistan and India to encourage people to people dialogue.

Welcoming the delegation, co-founder of the India-Pakistan Peace Coalition, Ras Siddiqui, said that the current dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi was need of the hour and hoped that there would be a positive outcome to the satisfaction of both the parties.

Wajahat Ali said that there was a general feeling on both sides that they needed peace for achieving economic development.

"There is no alternative to peace," he stressed. Nasir Iqbal said that there should be transparency in the dialogue and people should be taken into confidence. Naveed Ahmed said that was no question that "we need peace but it should be open".

He pointed out that language is changing between the two countries which is a positive development.

Swaraj Thapa argued that the mere fact that both sides are on the negotiating table is a positive development. " I am very optimistic," he added. Pranab Dhal Sayanth said he believed that there should be a shared vision of development and there should be more participation by the people-to-people peace groups.

Avnish Jain said that there was a change in the editorial policy of his newspaper and now there was little rhetoric. He had the opportunity to visit Pakistan twice and his newspaper brief for these visits was to ' write stories of humanitarian interest," he added.

One of the questions raised during the debate was, if the two countries were forced to the negotiating table by America? The Indian side stressed that there is no arms twisting from the USA but there is a genuine desire for peace.

The Pakistani side was of the view that there is a general perception in Pakistan that President Musharraf's government is under tremendous US pressure.