HYDERABAD, July 27: The volunteers of the Movement for Peace and Tolerance and the Pakistan Peace Coalition have stressed the need for people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India and called for simplification of visa regime for divided families, students, peace activists and tourists.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday, Zulfikar Shah, Mustafa Baloch, Zulfikar Halepoto and Punhal Sario said that people on both sides of the border wanted softening of visa regime, which was getting tougher because of tense relations.

Only recently, they said, India had attached more conditions to visa issuance process for Pakistanis.

The condition to report at a police station should be done away with and the two countries should lay more emphasis on trade sector, they said.

They said that the two countries allowed trade of only selected a number of commodities through Wagah and Attari routes although they could increase trade volume under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement and add more commodities to the list of trade-related items.

They called for opening Munabao-Khokhrapar route for trade and said that the volunteers’ lighting earthen lamps simultaneously in Pakistan and India would send a message of friendship and coalition against terrorism in the wake of meeting of foreign ministers of the two countries. The peace activists would light earthen lamps in different cities of the country today.

They praised the meeting of foreign ministries, saying the two countries were confronting terrorism in their areas and such meetings provided both nations an opportunity for establishing lasting peace.

They expressed the hope that the process of dialogue would continue to ensure peace in the region. Unfortunately, they said, in the wake of Nov 26, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai the dialogue process came to a halt and was restored again in Sharm Al-Sheikh and then in Mohali where prime ministers of the two countries met.

They said that before Mumbai carnage took place, major headway had been made to resolve issues of Sir Creek and Siachen and expressed the hope that the foreign ministers’ meeting would make some progress on these stalled issues.