News
Saturday, April 30, 2011
PPC welcomes Pak-India decision to strengthen trade
LAHORE: The Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) has welcomed the joint statement by Pakistani and Indian government to “undertake new initiatives in developing the roadmap to boost trade between the two countries”.
This statement was released after the meeting of Pakistani and Indian commerce secretaries in Islamabad. The PPC is of the view that the “decision” is a very positive indication that the two countries are at long last willing to de-link the need to take new initiatives in developing confidence-building measures from the age-old political disputes like Kashmir. Encouraged by this new trend, the PPC demands of the two governments to move forward and extend this initiative to cover the expansion of people-to-people contact between the two countries, which means: unrestricted exchange of information – newspapers, magazines, books, TV news channels etc; introduction of a more humane and civilised system of visa and travel regime that should allow citizens of the two countries to visit each other without having to go through the humiliating conditions of city-specific and police reporting; and allowing senior citizens to be issued visa at the point of entry leading ultimately to complete visa exemption; end to the practice of arresting and detaining people on minor offences like inadvertent crossing of borders, overstaying etc, and particularly the arrests of fishermen on the pretext of violating un-demarcated maritime borders, and detaining them and their boats for long periods in each other’s jails.
The PPC also fully supports the views expressed by the Indian Kashmir Committee Chairman Ram Jethmalani and Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, while participating in a private TV programme, calling for the signing of a no-war pact between Pakistan and India, which in their opinion would eventually pave the way for the solution of Kashmir and other political disputes. pr
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk