NEW DELHI: Parliamentarians of India and Pakistan will be meeting here from April 30 to May 3 to continue a dialogue they started in Islamabad in February on a private initiative to strive "towards détente in the sub-continent."

The News, the English daily of Pakistan’s Jang Group of Newspapers, which had taken the initiative for the Islamabad conference, is organising the Delhi meet as what its Current Affairs Editor Imtiaz Alam describes as phase 2 of the first Indo-Pak Parliamentary Conference.

The Islamabad conference was adjourned, and not prorogued, to meet soon in New Delhi to institutionalise and regularise "contacts and dialogue between the elected representatives of the two people" and hence now the Delhi conference, says Imtiaz who flew into the capital this weekend for advance preparations.

The Delhi conference is aimed at "institutionalising parliamentary interaction at an unofficial level in the form of Parliamentarians for Détente in Sub-Continent (PDSc), besides encouraging formal contacts between the two Parliaments."

BENAZIR COMING: Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan National Speaker Ilahi Bukhsh Soomro are among those who have already consented while invitations have gone out to all six former Prime Ministers of India as also to three other former Pakistan Prime Ministers—Malik Miraj Khalid, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and Balakh Sher Mazari.

The 4-day conference, to be attended by over 50 Parliamentarians from Pakistan and about 100 from India, will start with a keynote address by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi will be inaugurating the conference.

The Public Opinion Trends (India), a pioneering feature agency specialising on the Media in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, is the joint sponsor of the show. Its executive editor Sushant Sareen is the joint organiser with Imtiaz Alam.

NO GOVT FUNDS: As Imtiaz underlines, the whole show will be privately organised by his newspaper group with absolutely no funding from either government. Even the participants will be all those who are not in the government but who belong to all political parties, including the ruling parties, of the two countries.

The preparatory committee for the Delhi conference will be formed Thursday night at a dinner meeting of all those Indian MPs who attended the Islamabad meet.

The organisers plan to bring five chief ministers of various parties on the presidium in one session, while former prime ministers of the two countries would be sitting on the presidium in another session.

OBJECTIVES: While the Ismalabad conference helped delegates express their unanimous commitment to create a congenial atmosphere to resolve all disputes through negotiations, the Delhi conference will move from generality of intent to "more deeper, concrete and specific understanding of the issues," says Imtiaz Alam. The objectives set for the conference are:

• Finding ways to grapple with a dangerous nuclear and conventional arms race;
• Evolving fresh approaches and alternative solutions to disputes while formulating more flexible and comprehensive strategies;
• Exploring and expanding areas of mutually beneficial cooperation;
• Bringing Parliamentarians closer and enabling them to take the center-stage of diplomacy for peace;
• Helping to build new bi-partisan consensus among the parliamentarians and create a new paradigm of détente in the sub-continent; and
• Making South Asia a region of peace, economic cooperation and social emancipation. END.