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aman ki asha Destination Peace

INTERNATIONAL

N
Wednesday, October 2, 2013

AN INITIATIVE OF THE JANG GROUP AND THE TIMES OF INDIA

A HALF-FULL GLASS

AKA Peace
Debates Convenor
honoured

India and Pakistan are inching along on the right path. We urge them to stay the course. Let the peace process continue

he suspense that accompanied the muchawaited meeting of the

Prime Ministers of
India and Pakistan on
the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly is over. As analysts had
predicted, there was no major breakthrough. And yet, given their domestic
pressures particularly Indias as elections approach -- and the rocky run-up
to Sundays meeting, the fact that they
met and agreed upon certain basics remains positive.
They agreed that reducing violence
over the disputed Kashmir border is
necessary for the relationship to advance, which they both desire, as
Indias national security adviser Shivshankar Menon said.
Towards that end, the PMs agreed
to task military officers to find effective means to restore the ceasefire.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
spoke of terrorism and the need for effective action on bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to book.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that
that was indeed Pakistans intention,
said Menon. Tensions that had built up
prior to the meeting include the terror
attacks on a police station and an
Army camp in Indian administered
Kashmir, considered the worst in a
decade. The attacks killed at least 10
people, including an Indian Army lieutenant colonel -- just a day after Singh
confirmed his meeting with Sharif.
As expected, the Indian counterpart of Pakistani warmongers started
a chorus to stop the Dr. Manmohan
Singh from meeting Mr. Nawaz Sharif,
commented journalist Jatin Desai, secretary of the Pakistan-India Peoples
Forum for Peace & Democracy

Sharif and Singh on the sidelines of UNGA: cautious steps forward

(PIPFPD) in a statement welcoming
the positives.
And indeed, it was positive, and
showed political maturity that despite
the anger in India over the Kashmir attacks (played to the hilt by a belligerent opposition) Singh went ahead with
his meeting with Sharif.

PAKISTANI
ACTIVISTS
VISIT INDIA

"Our journey is incomplete without youth interaction"

six-member delegation
of Pakistani politicians
and activists recently visited Kolkata and New
Delhi on the invitation of
Bharat Bangladesh Pakistan Peoples Forum (BBPPF) to enhance peaceful relations with India
through a people-centric approach.
Delegates from Pakistan included
Punjab provincial assembly members
Chaudhry Amjad, Pakistan Muslim
League Nawaz, M. Mian Rafiq, Pakistan Peoples Party and Tri-national
Committee member of BBPPF, Fanous
Gojar, Chairperson of Awami Workers
Party, Pakistan, Shakeel Ahmad, President, Awami Workers Party, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and President of BBPPF
Pakistan, Umar Zada,

Awami Workers Party (KhyberPakhtunkhwa) and President of Pakistan Chapter of BBPPF, expressed the
need to establish people-to-people
connections and how this could be
achieved. The discouraging phone call
rates between India in Pakistan and the
unavailability of any good cross-border
telephony, plus the high postal rates
act as a hindrance, he noted.
"It is ironic that we need to spend 8
to 10 times more to talk or to send
anything to our brother (India) compared to countries which are thousands of miles away, he said.
"Do you know why terrorist attacks
are happening at this time? he asked.
"The common people want the
rela-

Hours before the crucial meeting,

the waters were further muddied by
PM Sharifs reported comment that
Singh had behaved like a dehati aurat
(village woman) in complaining to US
President Barack Obama about crossborder terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

The dehati aurat phrase emerged

during journalist Hamid Mirs comments from New York to Najam Sethi
on Aapas ki Baat; Mir later clarified
that Sharif had not said anything
derogatory about Singh. (An interesting debate arose thereafter, on why
village woman should be seen as a

pejorative in the first place, given how

hardworking and strong village
women are).
"Nawaz Sharif basically wanted to
say that if India had a problem with
Pakistan, then the two countries can
speak and not take it up with Obama.
And he said this in a lighter vein. I presented this on television in a nutshell.
Sharif never said anything of the sort,"
clarified Mir.
We feel encouraged by the decision of the two Prime Ministers, not to
allow the anti-peace forces to derail the
talks, said Jatin Desai in the PIPFPD
statement. As expected the Indian
counterpart of Pakistani warmongers
had started a chorus to stop the Dr.
Manmohan Singh from meeting Mr.
Nawaz Sharif. We are happy that Mr.
Sharif has expressed his governments
commitment to punish those who were
guilty of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
While we share Indian governments concern about Pakistan based
terrorist groups unleashing violence in
India and the need for Pakistan authorities to stop the cross border terrorist
activities, we also recognise the fact
that Pakistan itself is a serious victim
of terrorism.
The PIPFPD statement rightly calls
for people to unite against these forces
in both India and Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. It is imperative
that the democratic governments of
India and Pakistan join hands in building peace on the subcontinent, rather
than look up to the forces of global imperialism to solve our problems.
India and Pakistan are inching
along on the right path. The people of
both countries urge them to stay the
course.
Beena Sarwar

man ki Asha Indo

Peace
Debates
Convenor Uzair
Ghumman
has
been invited to
serve as an independent adjudicator for the prestigious international debating championship Chennai Worlds 2014,
Dec 28 2013 Jan 3, 2014.
Teams from 82 countries
participated the World Championship last year in Berlin.
Even more representation is
expected at Chennai.
Ghumman, 25, did his degree in Telecommunication
Engineering in 2012 from
FAST-NU Lahore and was the
President of the debating
team FAST-VOICE during
2011-12 session. He is the
first debater from Pakistan
invited to adjudicate as
an independent adjudicator at a World
Championship.
He represented
Pakistan in the World
Council for two years in a
row, something that he believes helped him to convince the major adjudicators from around the
world, as well as Indian

Uzair Ghumman: at an orientation of volunteers for the upcoming

Aman ki Asha debates
teams, to attend the
debates in Pakistan.
I hope the Aman
ki Asha Peace debates
set a precedent and
show the real image
of Pakistan to the Indian side
and to the rest of the world,
he says. We believe in debating issues, and we are talented people who have been
misrepresented and misinterpreted. I hope that I can deliver the same message at the World
championship as
well.

Reminder for Pakistani participants: Oct 15 deadline

Please email Hasan Rafiq or Ameer Hamza, event Co Conveners at voice@lhr.nu.edu.pk with queries. You may also contact:
Uzair Ghumman, Convenor - tel. +92-3004-128-369; email
umg_88@hotmail.com
Muhammad Wasee, VOICE president - tel. +92-3218-495-699;
email: wasee09@hotmail.com.
Registered Indian participants please contact Abhijeet Singh
Narwal with concerns and queries at tel. +91-9595-404-560
or email abhijeetsinghnarwal@gmail.com

B R I E F S

Pakistani singer performs for Indian children

Happy 107th

The star attraction

at a benefit concert for Indian children held in Zurich,
Switzerland recently was
the famous Pakistani Sufi
singer Ustad Shafqat Ali
Khan, who flew to Zurich
from Lahore especially for
the event.
The concert, held on
Sept 21, International
Peace Day, was organised
by Asha for Education, a
volunteer-run non-profit
organization that helps educate underprivileged children in India.
Ustad Shafqat Ali
Pakistani singer Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan: humanity and music
Khan performance enchanted a diverse audience of around 120 people consisting of Indians, Pakistanis and Europeans. The concert was attended by the Indian embassys deputy chief of mission, as well
as a number of Zurich-based performance artists.
Along with the Ustad, a Zurich-based Swiss sitar player, Hans Wettstein, also performed
a Sitar recital. The entire profit from the concert will go to four projects that Asha is currently
supporting to send more than 1,000 underprivileged children to school in India.
For more information about Asha for Education, Zurich go to Facebook page.

Celebrating Bhagat Singhs birthday in Lahore

he Bhagat Singh
Memorial Committee
brought together various parties and organisations in Lahore on September 28 to commemorate
the revolutionary freedom
fighter Bhagat Singhs
107th birthday.
The event was held at
Shadman Chowk, a venue
that once housed the
prison where Bhagat Singh
and his comrades, Sukh
Dev and Raj Guru were executed on March 23,
1931.
A large number of peoA shared heritage: activists in Lahore honour Bhagat Singh
ple from across the social
spectrum attended the event, including leftist and progressive activists, trade unionists, students, human rights workers and literary figures. They chanted slogans commemorating Bhagat Singh and condemned violence and religious extremism. After a cake-cutting ceremony,
they held a candlelight vigil.
Pakistani groups have been commemorating Bhagat Singhs martyrdom on 23rd March
for many years. This was the first time that his birthday was also celebrated.

A Southasian bookazine in Bangalore

The regional vision was alive and kicking at the recently concluded Bangalore Literary Festival
iterary festivals in various South Asian cities
have become a great
cross-point for regional
writers to present their
works and meet each
other. The latest was the Bangalore
Literature Festival (Sept 27-29).
Appropriately, poets and lyricists
Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi launched
the Bollywood issue of Kathmandubased regional magazine Himal
Southasian,Under the Shadow
of the Bollywood Tree,
which focuses on a hundred
years of cinema in South
Asia.
Himals editors have
used the term Bollywood
consciously suggesting that
it may even be time to introduce it as an adjective or verb
in the Southasian lexicon. Indeed, Southasians know exactly what is meant when
movie-goers emerge from a cinema hall, claiming that it was
too Bollywood! says Himal editor Kanak Mani Dixit. (Much
like people talk about something
being so Aman ki Asha.)
The 25-year old Himal
Southasian broke new ground in
January this year by starting the
regions first bookazine, literally
a combination of book and magazine. This hybrid model combines
the magazines editorial strengths

dia
z-e-Dosti, In
bers of Agha
em
m
h
it
w
s
activist
tions to be
liticians and
Pakistani po
strong but there are some elements on
social activist affiliated with both sides who do not wish this. IndiGovernment Postgraduate College and ans should understand that Pakistanis
do not support any effort to hurt India
Peshawar-based student Saifullah.
Despite a sudden change in plan or to oppose any peace process. We
that curtailed their visit and many must continue with the dialogues and
other engagements, the Pakistani dele- peace process.
Sharing his experiences of the
gate took out special time to meet the
youth delegation of Aaghaz-e-Dosti, all visit, PML-Ns Chaudhary Amjad, said
either students or young professionals. that he was happier to have not come
The Pakistani delegates were unan- on an official visit as a government
imous about the importance of engag- guest, so that he is not bound by proing with youth, who need to take up tocols and restrictions. He enjoyed a
rickshaw ride in Old Delhi, was happy
the baton for peace.
"In these 66 years since indepen- to see the striking similarities bedence, those who had witnessed the tween that and Pakistani cities.
Fanous Gojar, chairperson of
pain of separation have either died or
are very old now. The responsibility to Awami Workers Party, said that it was
move ahead falls on the shoulder of his second visit to India and he desyouths, people like you. It is necessary perately wants to go to Lucknow next
to sensitize the youths about the need time because, during his time in a
to build relations for love and being to- Karachi prison, he had met many
gether," said Umar Zada, the social ac- prisoners who belonged to Lucknow.
May these dreams come true.
tivist from Timarpar, Pakistan.
Shakeel Ahmed, President of
aka

with sustainability.
Himal Southasian also partnered with the Hri Institute for
Southasian Research and Exchange
to organise a unique Southasian
panel The Southasian Voice: Writing For Ourselves featuring participants from Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Sri Lanka and India. Since the
early 1980s, the phenomenon of Indians writing in English has broadened to include

(Left) Poets and lyricists Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi: launching the Himal Southasian Bollywood issue. (Above): A
Pakistani book launched: journalist Babar Ayaz (R) launched his book Whats Wrong with Pakistan at the Bangalore Lit
Fest with South Asian writers and journalists (L-R) Laxmi Murthy, Mira Hashmi, Ashok Ferry, Farah Ghaznavi, and Kanak Dixit

writers from other

parts of the region. Pakistanis, Sri
Lankans, Bangladeshis, Nepalis and
Bhutanese have been widely ac-

claimed on the global literary

scene.
The panel addressed the
question of whether there has
been a performative aspect to
writing, a targeting of the West and
the Southasian diaspora as the intended audience and whether regional writers have now begun to

write for ourselves.

The panelists included the Nepali
journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, Himal
Southasians publisher and editor
and writer, Pakistani film studies
teacher Mira Hashmi from Lahore;
Ashok Ferry the Colombo-based author of Colpetty People (2002) and
The Good Little Ceylonese Girl

(2006), both shortlisted for the Gratiaen Awards; Bangladeshi writer

and development worker Farah
Ghuznavi, and Pakistani journalist
Babar Ayaz whose recent book
Whats wrong with Pakistan?
(Hay House India 2013) was
launched at the literary festival.
aka

THE FIRST STEP

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

A peace initiative whose time has come...

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Destination Peace: A commitment by the Jang Group, Geo and The Times of India Group to
create an enabling environment that brings the people of Pakistan and India closer together,
contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.