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Pakistan Peace Coalition welcomes improving ties between India and Pakistan following parliamentarians exchange visits
KARACHI, Aug. 27: 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.
In a statement here Monday, 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.
We welcome the outcome of the recently held two-day dialogue between parliamentarians of Pakistan and India in New Dehli. It is sincerely hoped this type of positive engagement and dialogue would continue uninterruptedly, the statement said.
It is an outstanding demand of the civil society organisations of both the countries to pursue all the decisions, which were been 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, 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 otherâ?Ts 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. For fishermen a mechanism needs to be evolved to stop arrests in the open sea on charges of violations of borders.
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