The Hindu : National : Take peace process forward: Pakistan Left leaders

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Thursday, Apr 03, 2008
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Take peace process forward: Pakistan Left leaders

Vinay Kumar

For more people-to-people contacts
Hope democratic process in Pakistan will be strengthened

COIMBATORE: As a new government assumed power in Pakistan, two senior functionaries of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) have expressed the hope that the new regime would take forward the peace process with India and take steps to further strengthen the people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

“There is no other alternative but to take the peace dialogue forward between India and Pakistan. I think everyone realises this,” Dr. Shafiq Ahmad, central committee member of the CPP, told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Dr. Ahmad, who is attending the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) here as a fraternal delegate, said a welcome change was noticeable among members of the intelligentsia, media and professionals on their perception of India.

While admitting that the Left parties had not made their presence felt strongly in Pakistan, he said the CPP had prepared a 10-point programme in February, which included scrapping draconian legal provisions such as the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 2002, controlling the indulgence of military and para-military forces in business and economic activities, restoring the 1973 Constitution in its original form and the sacked judiciary. “The new government has taken note of some of our demands,” he added.

Claiming that a majority of the people were against making their country a “junior partner” of the U.S. in the war against terror, Dr. Ahmad, who hails from the North-Western Frontier Province, stressed the need to tackle “religious fanatics” in Pakistan as well as in India.

Religious fanaticism was a “big challenge” for the Left and democratic movements in the region. There was need for evolving a joint strategy to counter fundamentalism in order to ensure peace, stability and progress in the region.

Imdad Qazi, general secretary of the CPP, expressed the hope that the democratic process in Pakistan would be strengthened and the new government would take steps to make the political process vibrant. In his view, huge financial interests of the Army and bureaucratic system in Pakistan would not make them leave the political arena.

Both leaders vehemently agreed on Bollywood and cricket as being the twin unifying factors between the countries but decried the behaviour of cricket fans on some occasions who made out as if a “holy war” was on between the two teams.

‘Dual policy’

In its message to the CPI(M) Congress, the CPP criticised the Pakistan Army for adopting a “dual policy of financial gains” from the so-called war against terror. “We want to inform our fraternal parties that the Pakistan Army and its different agencies have made very much difficult situation for Communist and socialist forces to work in the country and many of our office bearers are under continued threat,” it said.

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