ROME, May 25: The Nazim of Karachi and New Delhi mayor said on Sunday they could play an important role in resolving Pakistani-Indian tensions, saying relations at a local government level were more conducive to peace-building.

The two men, along with some 40 other mayors from the likes of Kigali, Washington, Athens and Sarajevo, met in the statue-filled halls of Rome City Hall on Sunday for the second “Glocalisation Conference”.

“I am convinced our cities can play an important role in peace-building,” Niamatullah Khan, Nazim of Karachi, told Reuters in an interview.

“We mayors are closer to the people, to the nerve of the people, than national governments. We know how the people can be brought to a certain vision.”

Mr Khan and his counterpart from Delhi, Ashok Kumar Jain, spoke at a roundtable on peace-building with mayors of other cities in conflict zones — Nablus in the West Bank and Rishon Letzion in Israel, and the capitals of Ethiopia and Eritrea, among others.

“We have learnt a lot from each other. In exchanges between mayors, the tensions that make it difficult for national politicians to talk to each other do not exist,” Jain said through an interpreter, in a separate interview.

“We have a great desire to resume the city-to-city contact that once existed (between Indian and Pakistani cities). If the chance arises I will maybe take a delegation of councillors to Karachi,” said Jain.

But he added that such a visit would be subject to approval from India’s government.

Empowering city governments is precisely one of the goals of the Rome meeting.

“Local governments are very weak. But if we really do become a glocal forum, a network of local powers connected across the world, that will make a difference,” Mr Khan said.

“If relations between cities grow stronger, that will definitely affect the policies of national governments.”

But the Karachi Nazim said the “globalization” process needed to become much bigger and much faster to realise its potential.

“In the context of globalization, mayors can help balance out powers between local communities, national governments and international organisations. But this glocalisation process needs to be accelerated and widened.”

Mr Khan was also interested in visiting New Delhi. “Either he will invite me or I will invite him.”—Reuters