The Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) has supported the recommendations of the India-Pakistan parliamentarians for confidence building measures including easing visa regime, allowing citizens to travel by their own vehicles and visa-free access for educationists and senior citizens.
The PPC office-bearers Karamat Ali, B M Kutty, Dr Tipu Sultan, Zulfiqar Haelpoto and others hoped that both the countries would take meaningful confidence building measures for increasing people-to-people contacts, according to a press release issued here on Monday.
“We welcome the outcome of the recently held two-day dialogue between parliamentarians of Pakistan and India in New Dehli. It is sincerely hoped that this type of positive engagement and dialogue would continue uninterruptedly,” the statement said. It is an outstanding demand of the civil society organizations of both the countries to pursue all the decisions, which were agreed upon before the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
Both the countries had almost reached agreements on issues like Siachen and Sir Creek, visas on arrival for the elderly people, children and women and easing restrictions on exchange of newspapers and periodicals.
It is a welcome sign that the members of parliaments of India and Pakistan have recommended that both the countries should allow each other’s citizens to travel across the border in their own vehicles and discontinue the practice of police reporting to avoid undue harassment. It is also a welcome sign that the MPs recommended that both governments remove the ban/blockage on each other’s news and entertainment channels, and pitched for greater exchange of artistes and media persons. “We hope the forthcoming meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in Islamabad on September 7-9 to finalize the decisions and sign the proposed liberal visa regime agreement between the two countries.
The PPC demanded that all the prisoners of each other’s countries should be provided counselor access according to the agreement between India and Pakistan. After completion of the formalities they should be released. A mechanism needs to be evolved for fishermen to stop arrests in the open sea on charges of violations of borders, it further demanded.
Pakistan, like India, has much to benefit if visa requirements are waived for citizens of the two neighboring countries. People should be allowed to travel on any official identification document such as a passport or a drivers license. It would be of tremendous advantage to all citizens, especially for people of Pakistan, if they could have ready access to medical facilities on either side of the international borders. Academic exchanges at all levels including options for enrolling at educational institutions and centers of higher learning such as medical and engineering schools should be made available who wish to travel across borders in pursuit of knowledge. The burgeoning middle class in India could help revitalize tourism in Pakistan.
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