KARACHI :Book on partition and convergence launched
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 16: Speakers at a book launch on Friday said that if people of both India and Pakistan fully supported the ongoing peace process there was no reason that strong friendly ties between them could not be established in a short span of time. Addressing the launching ceremony of the book “Partition and Convergence” written by Jamal Naqvi at Karachi Press Club, they said that the people of various regions had formed regional unions and sooner or later similar arrangement would strengthen friendly ties in this region too.
Secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Iqbal Haider, former governor Mamnoon Hussain, Dr Jaffer Ahmad, Zahida Hina, Haris Gazdar, Anis Haroon, Nawaz Butt, Dr Tanvir Tahir, and author Jamal Naqvi spoke at the function.
They said it was being felt that the peace process was being pushed through by the bureaucrats owing to which it was not producing the desired results at a required pace.
They said that some people felt that since one country was bigger than the other, it would capture the market of the smaller neighbour country and cripple its industry and trade. They brushed aside the apprehension and pointed out that markets of bigger country would also open up and as such economy of all the regional countries would improve.
They said that the author had suggested in the book that owing to the strong communal feelings during the 1940s if the country was not partitioned riots would have occurred more often. But after the partition the hatred and strong communal feelings had subsided and now time was getting ripe for forming a regional union of all the countries of South Asia.
One of the speakers said that the book exposed how the ruling elite had robbed the country and that how vested interests group was keeping the Kashmir issue and tensions with India alive, as that group saw its survival by keeping these issues alive.
The speakers maintained that the book suggested that tolerance was necessary for democracy and it was a healthy sign that many political parties were coming closer and trying to accommodate each others points of view.
The 155-page book comprises 17 chapters – British India up to 1858; Imperial India-Enter Mr M.K. Gandhi, Inter-war years and Second World War; Independence and Partition 1945 – 1992; First Kashmir War and United Nations; Post Imperialist World; The Cold War Period; Liaquat Nehru Pact; guided and controlled democracy; Non-Alignment Movement; India and Pakistan (1958–1972); Post Simla period (1972–2003); The Indira Doctrine; States and nation of India; The World Order and South Asia.
Proceedings of the programme were conducted by Mazhar Abbas.
