Discussing South Asian peace: Part - II

In the 1980s, multiple civil society organisations emerged in Pakistan that stood for democracy, gender equity, human rights, peace and social justice.

Some of them promoted their ideals through art and culture, others worked to raise awareness through advocacy and also worked in education, mental health, and other development and welfare initiatives.

While Madeeha Gohar and Shahid Nadeem led Ajoka, Akbar Pasha (Pashi) and Zubair Ahmed founded Lok Rahs in Lahore. The Dastak Theatre Group in Karachi benefitted from the guidance of Aslam Azhar and Mansoor Saeed in Karachi. Ismael Yusuf formed the National Theatre in Malir and Tehreek-i-Niswaan of Sheema Kirmani staged plays on gender and social issues.

Shirkat Gah worked in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar, Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and Nighat Saeed Khan’s ASR in Lahore, Karamat Ali’s Piler in Karachi and M Tehseen and Irfan Mufti led South Asia Partnership (SAP Pk) in Lahore – all had their involvement in peace initiatives too starting from the 1980s.

Benazir Bhutto, opposition leader in 1992, took the lead in inviting all opposition leaders in South Asia to Karachi to discuss a common vision for the future of the region. In the same year (1992), the speakers of South Asian countries formed the Association of Saarc Speakers and Parliamentarians. The mid-1990s was also a period during which the Pak-India Peace Forum was taking shape and after the first meeting in September 1994 in Lahore, just two months later in November 1994, the second discussion was held in Delhi. The five members of the Pakistani team were Dr Mubashir Hasan, Prof Haroon Ahmed, Beena Sarwar, Madeeha Gohar and Karamat Ali.

Unfortunately, Karamat Ali, Madeeha Gohar and Mubashir Hasan are no more with us, but we must remember these names as the pioneers of the Pak-India Peace Forum in Pakistan. They were courageous voices of dissent and resistance against autocratic and anti-democratic practices too. The Indian side included names such as Achin Vanaik, Amrita Chachhi, Anuradha Chenoy, Gautam Navlakha, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Kamla Bhasin, Nirmal Mukerji, Prof Dinesh Mohan, Rita Manchanda, Sumanta Banerji, Tapan Bose, Teesta Setalvad and others. Of these, we have lost Kamla Bhasin, Nirmal Mukerji and Tapan Bose quite recently.

The Delhi meeting in November 1994 observed that the politics of confrontation between India and Pakistan had failed to achieve benefits of any kind for the people of both countries. “The people of both countries increasingly want genuine peace and friendship and would like their respective governments to honour their wishes.” The group decided to organise a People’s Convention on peace and democracy in New Delhi in February 1995, to be attended by around one hundred representatives each from India and Pakistan. Dr Mubashir Hasan and Nirmal Mukherjee became co-chairpersons for the joint preparatory committee.

The convention was duly held in which more than two hundred Pakistani and Indian delegates participated, and it was hailed as a breakthrough. The delegates freely discussed the contentious issues of Kashmir, demilitarisation, and politics of religious intolerance which locked the ruling elites of the two countries in conflict. After some initial criticism by the press on both sides, the subsequent press reports and editorials indicated a change in their attitudes towards the convention. The same press had largely ignored the efforts of the forum before the convention as most people were sceptical about it being held at all.

Just nine months after the Delhi convention, the Lahore convention of the Pak-India Peace Forum took place as the second and concluding part of the Forum’s launching. Just as the Congress government of Narasimha Rao had granted visas to over 100 delegates from Pakistan, the PPP government of Benazir Bhutto facilitated the travel for over 70 members of the Indian delegation. The Pakistan chapter succeeded in mobilising some prominent industrialists and businesspeople to support the convention. The Indian delegation had representation from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and even from as far as the north-eastern state of Nagaland.

These dialogues reflected the concerns of the millions of people of the two countries and suggested the establishment of joint committees and asked peace activists to increase their activities in their own countries. It was also a significant event that participants of both sides agreed that the Kashmir issue was not merely a territorial dispute, but also an issue concerning people living on both sides of the Line of Control. The delegates also discussed intolerance, war, demilitarisation and denuclearisation. The convention was followed by a presser that Dr Mubashir Hasan, I A Rehman, Kamla Prasad and Nirmal Mukherjee addressed.

Interestingly, or unfortunately, not all were happy with the convention and discussions on denuclearisation. An interesting incident that Dr A H Nayyar narrated to me is worth recalling. Right before the convention in Lahore, peace activist and physicist Zia Mian had edited a book titled ‘Pakistan’s Atomic Bomb and the Search for Security’ containing articles by Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, Lt Gen (r) Mujib ur Rehman, Dr Inayatullah, Syed Talat Hussain, Khaled Ahmed, Farhatullah Babar and others. Some ‘unknown persons’ – who were not that unknown – did not like the book and prevented its launch at the convention.

Though one of the articles in the book was by none other than a former general who was once Gen Ziaul Haq’s right-hand man and federal information minister in his military government, ‘the unknown persons’ did not want the book to be published. They pressured every publisher who showed interest in publishing the book. But Aamir Riaz of the Gautam Publishers defied the pressure and brought out the book. He had to pay a heavy price and spent some time in confinement with all sorts of threats to him and his family.

This incident shows that while the Pak-India Peace Forum was initiating and promoting people-to-people dialogue and the civilian government of Benazir Bhutto was facilitating such activities, the powers-that-be were not willing to tolerate any discussions or raising of questions about Pakistan’s atomic bomb. Anyway, the convention in Lahore concluded successfully in which some of the rapporteurs were Rita Manchanda, Saqlain Imam, Ashar Rehman and others. Chairpersons of the session included names such as Dorab Patel, Sumanta Banerjee, Latif Afridi, Manoranjan Mohanty, Tahir Muhammad Khan, Dr Eqbal Ahmed, and Kamla Prasad. Again, these names are significant for their roles in the promotion of peace in South Asia.

The third joint convention of the Pak-India Peace Forum took place the very next year in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in December 1996. Of the 165 Pakistani delegates present at the convention, 142 had crossed the border by rail and road and it in itself became a historic event as the subcontinent was about to celebrate its half-century of independence. The delegates developed action plans on four major themes: demilitarisation, denuclearisation, peace dividends, religious intolerance, Kashmir and governance. The convention stressed that the two states had deprived the people of the promise of freedom.

“Diversion of precious resources to wars and preparation for war, condemned millions of people in the two countries to poverty and squalor and this resulted in the denial of people’s fundamental rights and basic needs like health, education, housing, and others facilities.”

The Calcutta declaration said inter alia: “The most fundamental interest of the people of Pakistan and India, as also of the South Asian Region as a whole, demands that both countries celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence by taking a solemn pledge to devote the second half-century of freedom, to realizing the shared aspirations of the people for peace, democracy, justice, tolerance and equal opportunities for all citizens regardless of belief, ethnicity, gender, and social status…

“The two states must enter into bilateral agreements to ensure the following: Free travel across the border; free exchange of information and publications and reduction of communication and travel costs; removal of trade barriers and grant of MFN status to each other.”

Co-chairpersons of the various sessions included names such as Abid Hasan Minto, Tapan Bose, Haroon Ahmed, Rita Manchanda, M B Naqvi, Anwar Kamal and Zarina Salamat, while keynote speakers also included Fauzia Saeed and Malini Bhattacharya.

To be continued...

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. He tweets/posts @NaazirMahmood and can be reached at: mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk