Indian MPs arrive in Pakistan for parliamentary dialogue

A 15-member multi-party parliamentary delegation of India has arrived here to participate in the third round of Pakistan-India Parliamentarian Dialogue, organizers said Monday.
The two-day dialogue will be held on Jan. 17-18 in Islamabad where parliamentarians of both sides will interact on the broad theme of Trade and Economic Relations between India and Pakistan.
The Indian delegation comprises MPs representing the country’s major political parties from both houses of the parliament.
The dialogue theme, as is customary, has been decided by parliamentarians from two sides. Parliamentarians from Pakistan and India have held two rounds of dialogues in 2011, including Dialogue-I in January 2011 in Islamabad and Dialogue-II in August 2011 in New Delhi.
An independent and non-partisan think tank ‘Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency’ (PILDAT) is organizing the talks. PILDAT said that it had undertaken the initiative of the Parliamentarian Dialogues to enhance the role of parliamentary diplomacy in Pakistan’s relations with other countries. “Given South Asian regional relations, it is imperative, therefore, that parliamentarians from India and Pakistan engage in parliamentary diplomacy that can increase mutual understanding and improve respective parliamentary scrutiny of governmental foreign policies,”the PILDAT said in a statement.
It said parliamentarians from India and Pakistan can play a key role in facilitating the dialogue process and conflict resolution on mutually acceptable and advantageous considerations. “They have a clout with official circles, local influential and their constituents that they can urge their respective governments and political parties to work towards building normal and peaceful relations and engaging in regular dialogue for addressing the contentious issues”.