20 February 2005	Sunday	10 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: Indian and Pakistani communist leaders will have a rare dialogue between them later this month when a delegation from India visits Pakistan, where isolated comrades hope to get a big boost from the contact.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet and A.B. Bardhan, general secretaries of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India respectively and three other members of their central committees are due to arrive in Lahore on Tuesday on a 10-day visit that will also take them to Karachi, Sahiwal, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

A joint left front of Pakistani left-wing parties will arrange seminars and other functions for the visiting communist leaders, the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) said on Saturday.

The visit, first by senior Indian communists leaders to Pakistan, will not only strengthen ties between the progressive forces of the two countries but also accelerate the India-Pakistan peace process, a CPP spokesman, Jameel Ahmad Malik, said in a statement.

"The visit of the (Indian) communist leaders will create a new basis for Pakistan-India peace," he said and added: "There is a wealth of information, knowledge and history that we can learn from them."

"It will also break the international and regional isolation of the left in Pakistan... (and) strengthen the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, secular and democratic forces in the region...," Mr Jameel said.