KARACHI, March 23: The six-day World Social Forum proceedings begin on Friday at 6pm at the KMC Sports Complex with the plenary session to be presided over by Kumari Nirmala Deshpande, a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian parliament).

The speakers at the plenary session include noted activist and writer Tariq Ali, British MP Jeremy Corbyn, HRCP Chairperson Asma Jehangir, Vice-President of ATTAAC France Gustav Masiah, Kenya Debt Relief Network’s M.S. Waha Kaar, WSF Brazil’s Jose Correia and Palestine Stop the Wall Campaign’s Jamal Juma.

Karamat Ali, a member of the WSF Organizing Committee, told a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday said that over 400 events, including rallies and cultural activities, as well as conferences and workshops on disaster management, water issues in South Asia, bonded labour, peace and conflict, inter-religion dialogue, women in resistance movements, rights situation in Pakistan, globalization and Farmers, challenges to regional peace and fishermen detention, etc were planned to be held.

He said the main objective of holding the WSF were to raise awareness of centric issues at the grassroots level. Issues like the adverse affects of globalization, terrorism, militarization, conflict, injustice, fundamentalism etc would be deliberated upon at length.