LAHORE : The Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) celebrated its tenth anniversary this year and called for a citizen-friendly Pakistan-India visa procedure, demilitarisation in the two countries and a solution of the Kashmir dispute that was based on the wishes of its people.
Some 300 delegates from Pakistan and about 70 delegates from India attended the three-day session and adopted the following resolutions:
The governments of India and Pakistan continue talks with consistency, patience and open minds; prevent nuclear escalation, desist from new nuclear and missile tests and halt military growth by reducing military expenditure by a minimum of 25 percent; condemn the US-led military operations in Iraq and refuse them troops; make the visa procedures easy and citizen-friendly, increase diplomatic staff to pre-2001 levels and open consulates in Mumbai and Karachi; lift the ban on each others publications; review and revise school curricula to remove propaganda; stop treating Kashmir as a territorial dispute and view it as a matter that affects the lives of Kashmiri people; and address socio-economic issues, gender injustice and intolerance towards minorities.
Reiterating its long-standing demand to overhaul the entire visa regime, the forum said it was necessary to do away with police reporting; entry and exit from the same point and by the same mode of transport; and issuing visas only to those having relatives in the other country. It said that visas should be issued upon entry and for the entire country instead of just specific cities. It also demanded the governments to open the Khokrapar border.
At the occasion, which also happened to be the 75th anniversary of the Lahore Congress' resolve to struggle for independence from British rule, the PIPFPD resolved to reinforce the independence and sovereignty of both countries in an age of globalisation.
The forum resolved to extend its activities to more districts in India and Pakistan to strengthen and organise peace efforts. Kashmir issue: The PIPFPD said the Kashmir issue needed to be solved in accordance with the wishes of its people.
The committee stressed the need to mobilise civil activists, teachers, human rights organisations, women, chambers of commerce and industry, labour unions and youth in Kashmir .
To achieve peace, the committee asked that all prisoners held without charge should be released, general amnesty should be declared for all those held in detention under special laws, civil or military detention laws or without trial, tribunals should be set up to investigate missing people and victims of violence, especially women and children, should be provided relief and rehabilitation.
It asked that national and international human rights organisations be allowed access to all parts of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of local permits instead of visas; crossings be opened at Baramula, Kotli and Poonch; new crossing be created across the Neelam river; trade and goods traffic be allowed across the Line of Control; freedom be given to assemble, express and associate in all areas; the size and presence of security forces be reduced; and those who fled Jammu and Kashmir for fear of life or property be allowed to return to their lands and claim full rehabilitation.