Friday, July 03, 2009
Karachi
Permanent peace in South Asia, especially in Pakistan and India is essential for the physical and spiritual welfare of both nations, and peace should be ensured by interacting with each other with open hearts and minds. This was the general consensus at a discussion forum titled, “Promotion of Peace in South Asia and Remembering Didi Nirmala Deshpande” at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) auditorium on Thursday.
The programme was organised by Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) in association with Pakistan Institute of Labour and Education Research (PILER).
Zulfiqar Shah from PPC summarized the life and work of Didi Nirmala Deshpande who devoted her life for the poor of South Asia and bringing peace between Pakistan and India. She had so much love for the labour and downtrodden that she chose to die on May 1 — the International Labour Day.
Indian Human Rights Lawyer and activists Kavita Srivastava from Rajasthan reminded the audience that both sides of India Pakistan divide wanted peace that would bring them prosperity but ‘certain vested interests’ always sabotaged such attempts. She narrated story of a Pakistani boy who inadvertently strayed into India, was captured by Indian Border Security Force and was kept in jail for a month before Srivastava and her peace team brought the boy to Bikaner (a town in Rajasthan). “There was general enthusiasm in the town and many girls tied ‘Rakhi’ on the wrist of Muneer and young boys rooted to meet him. It proves my point that generally people of Pakistan and India want peace and friendship”, she remarked. Srivastava also informed the audience that 300 million Indians could afford only one meal a day. “It was pathetic that so many people were starving while India continues to arm herself citing danger from its western neighbour”.
Jatin Desai, an Indian journalist based in Mumbai and Sandeep Pandey other Indian Human Rights activist from Lucknow also spoke warmly on India-Pakistan peace process.
Human Rights activists from Pakistan Syed Iqbal Haider spoke on the continuous efforts by the activist of both the countries to bring the two neighbours near and begin an era of peace and prosperity. Veteran journalist M.B. Naqvi lamented the absence of conviction for the lasting peace in the minds of the governments of two countries that was making worse scenario. More and more arms and ammunition were stockpiled by the both citing security problem from each other. The money used for buying such arms could have been used in feeding the hungry mouths of the two sides, he concluded.
( Special thanks The News International)
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