Bhutto's PPP to attend SAFMA event in Shimla

Islamabad, May 30: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will participate in the upcoming two-day SAFMA Parliamentary Forum to be held in Shimla in India from June two. The PPP, being a strong supporter of both freedom of the media as well as peace in South Asia, has been actively participating in all forums convened by South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).

This year, the South Asian Parliamentary Forum-II, titled 'South Asian Parliament: Towards South Asian Unity', will see a sizeable participation by the PPP.

Twenty-three delegates will participate from Pakistan out of which four belong to the PPP. They include Senator Enver Baig, Senator Javed Leghari, and MNA Choudhary Manzoor Ahmed. Central Information Secretary of the Party, Sherry Rehman, would lead the PPP delegates.

Talking to the media before leaving for India, Ms Rehman claimed that it was under the first government of Benazir Bhutto that the foundations for a composite dialogue process between the two nations were laid.

''Progressive CBMs between India and Pakistan, the redeployment of troops from Siachin, and the seeds for SAFTA were sown at the sidelines of the Islamabad SAARC summit in 1989 between Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the then PM of India, Rajiv Gandhi,'' she emphasised.

Explaining her party's position on bilateral relations and the Kashmir issue, Ms Rehman said at every step, PPP has always called for a just resolution of conflicts through peaceful means, and Ms Bhutto had always supported the blurring of hard lines and the softening of borders in order to provide relief to the Kashmiri people.

''Even today, the PPP continues to call for a process that seeks to ease travel restrictions between India and Pakistan, and gives strong support to regional integration and economic cooperation, and to strengthen organisations such as SAARC and SAFTA,'' Ms Rehman added.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will inaugurate the two-day conference, while External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee will deliver a keynote address. Leading members of parliament apart from journalists from the region will take part in the deliberations.

UNI