May 20, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

PESHAWAR, May 19: Around 400 delegates from India are expected to attend the eighth joint convention of Pak-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) to be held here from May 24 to 27th.

The delegates would be received at Wagah on May 23 by peace activists and members of the forum from Pakistan and would be transported to Peshawar for participation in the three-day convention.

It is learnt that around 418 delegates have applied for the visa.

The delegates mostly include peace activists, writers, lawyers, academicians, human rights workers and other civil society members.

Office bearers of the forum are presently negotiating with different high-ups so as to ensure provision of visas to maximum number of delegates.

Brisk preparations are underway in the provincial capital, which will be hosting a joint convention for the second time after a decade as the previous one was held in 1998. The forum has constituted various committees for looking after different arrangements.

The members are also busy in booking rooms for the expected delegates in different hotels and guest houses of the provincial capital.

The proposed agenda for the convention is “Imperialism and challenges to democracy”. The convention would also pay tribute to Late Ms Nirmala Deshpande, a known Ghandian and peace activist, who was an active member of the forum and had strived for improving ties between India and Pakistan.

“The first day of the convention would be dedicated to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan, and his message of non-violence and peace,” said Advocate Qaiser Khan, the provincial secretary general of the forum.

He said that a youth assembly would be held on the second day of the convention which would be attended by the youngsters from both the countries.

Another remarkable feature of the convention would be the cultural shows of the two countries which would be staged on alternate days. The cultural activities would also include theatre.

Speakers would address different important issues including: War on terrorism and impact on people’s rights; Security, sovereignty and democracy; Economic and military imperialism - externally imposed militarisation; Internal militarisation Inc; impact of militarisation on women/gender; Kashmir; etc.

The participants would pass a joint declaration which would be followed by a joint press conference on the last day of the convention on May 26.

Mr Qaiser Khan told Dawn that they wanted to achieve different goals through this convention topmost of which was improving ties between the two countries.

He said that there were scores of educational institutions of international standard in

India and they would try that seats were reserved for Pakistani students in those institutions.

Similarly, he added there were various health facilities providing treatment of international standard especially in cardiac and ophthalmologic diseases, and with the help of their friends in the forum they could try to simplify the procedure of Pakistani patients visiting India.