ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Renowned Indian peace activist Satya Paul here on Monday called for building bridges of cooperation, understanding and friendship between India and Pakistan and thwarting designs of those who do not want to see peace in South Asia for their vested interests.

Delivering a lecture on “Pak-India peace prospects” at South Asia Free Media Association (Safma) media centre, he asked the peoples of the two countries to press their governments for continuing with the peace process till it reached a logical conclusion.

He said the two countries would be able to divert their resources towards the welfare of their peoples when they would not be in the need of arms.

“They will not need to go to IMF and World Bank which are tools in the hands of the United States,” he remarked. He said peace in South Asia did not suit the US as it would lose a market for its weapons. He referred to the visit of Colin Powell to Pakistan and Condoleezza Rice to India when the peace process was progressing well and pointed out that the two visits were very meaningful.

While Pakistan was promised F-16s, India was given indication that it would be provided with F-18 planes. “Who will be the buyer of US arms if Pakistan and India start living in peace,” he asked.

He said during a visit to the US he came to know that the country had a department of crisis meant to foment crises in different countries with an apparent purpose of creating a market for arms’ sale.

Satya Paul said though the instant reaction of the Indian prime minister to the Bombay blasts was harsh and he did say that the peace process cannot go on if terrorism continued but the public pressure made him to change his mind and he agreed that the foreign secretary level talks between the two countries would take place.

He said he had given certain proposals to prime minister Manmohan Singh keeping in view his expected meeting with President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the forthcoming NAM summit.

He said the proposals included permission to senior citizens from Pakistan (over 65) to travel to India without visa, week- long visa along with two family members to those wishing to visit their place of birth, unilateral elimination of all trade restrictions on Pakistan and grant of 100 student visas every year for Pakistani students.

He also proposed signing of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between the newspapers of the two countries on exchange of news and pages. He was of the view that the papers would be able to get business from each other and it would enable Pakistani newspapers to bring down their prices.