KARACHI, March 23: An eight-member delegation of peace and human rights activists from India will be arriving here next week to participate in a two-day convention that opens in the city on March 29.

This is the sixth joint convention being organized by the Pakistan - India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), which was formed by a group of peace and democracy loving citizens from both the countries, in Delhi (India) in 1994.

The PIPFPD’s Shahid Fiaz said that the visiting delegation includes Tapan K Bose, Anand Raj Varma, Jatinbabu Desai, Vijaya Jasvantsinh Chauhan, Neera Adarkar, Amit Chakarborty and Subasis Chaterjee. The visiting team, besides visiting the city, will also go to Hyderabad, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.

He said that so far PIPFPD’s five joint conventions — three in India and two in Pakistan — had been organized and the sixth was being organized in the city as decided at the previous convention held at Bangalore.

He said that owing to high tension between both the countries in the past couple of years, and particularly since Dec 13, 2001, all opportunities of interaction, including people-exchange and dialogue, had seized to exist between both the countries.

He said that the forum was formed to establish peace and solidarity among the people of both the neighbouring countries and to expedite efforts to resolve all issues and conflicts between them in a peaceful and just manner.

Mr Fiaz said that during the two-day programme a seminar on Indo - Pak relations, an exhibition of paintings by young artists and a musical programme etc, would be organized under the aegis of the forum.