Asma Jahangir urges rivals India and Pakistan to bring common people closer

March 16th, 2011 - 9:02 pm ICT by ANI  

By Ravinder Singh RobinWagah, Mar 16 (ANI): Terming India and Pakistan’s exchange of views initiative or “people to people contact” as being meant for the privileged classes, Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir urged both governments to grant visas to the common people of the two countries.Jahangir, who is leading a 150-strong delegation of Pakistan lawyers and legal representatives to a seminar organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association of India in Jaipur, crossed into India through Wagah - Attari joint check post on Wednesday.”People to people contact should not be limited to “POLO”, it should come to the ‘Guli / Danda’ (the traditional local game of the India and Pakistan) that would be a real exchange of views and ideas between the two countries,” she told Asian News International (ANI) at the border.Expressing the gravity of the situation in Pakistan, Jahangir accepted that law and order situation is deteriorating in her country. She said that Pakistan is a smaller country than India and, if something happens in one part of the country, it has its effect on another part of the country.”It is not huge like India where something happens in northeast and you cannot feel the tremors in Delhi, whereas, we feel tremors wherever something happens,” she said.Hitting hard at both India and Pakistan on the issue of human rights violation, Jahangir said: “The issue of human rights is also a sour thumb for India, as problems in Orissa, where a Christian temple was burnt down. In Amritsar, you suffered due to a major operation (Blue Star in 1984) and grave human rights violation in Kashmir.”"We are also facing human rights violations, our record is as bad, as worse, but, let me tell you, in very difficult circumstances, the people of Pakistan have raised there voices even during the martial law regime of President Zia-ul-Haq, which was the hardest. And, we have raised our voices,” she added.The imminent peacenik, however, said they are determined to work hard and to fight to bring peace to South Asia by all means. (ANI)

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