The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, September 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Pakistani legal luminaries cross Wagah border
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Wagah (Amritsar), September 28
A 22-member delegation of legal luminaries from Pakistan, led by Mr Arif Choudhary, Chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab (Lahore), today entered India through the Wagah joint checkpost to attend a two-day international legal conference being held at Chandigarh from tomorrow.

The conference, which would see the participation of about 350 delegates from 23 countries, including Nepal, Sri lanka, England, Bhutan, Sudan and Pakistan, will be inaugurated by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, on September 29.

Four delegates would reach India tomorrow. Though the delegates from Pakistan were happy over the organisation of joint conferences like this, they were critical of bureaucratic hassles in granting visas. Mr Arif Choudhary said bureaucrats from both the countries were creating problems in granting visas. For strengthening brotherhood between the people of the two countries, the procedure for granting visas should be relaxed. He said it was on their own initiative that they had reached India where they would be interacting with like-minded people. Mr Shabbar Raja Rizvi, Advocate-General of the Punjab High Court (Lahore), is also accompanying the Pakistani delegates.

In another significant development, the delegates said Mr Parvez Illahi, Chief Minister, Punjab (Pakistan), would extend an invitation to his Indian counterpart, Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, shortly.

The legal luminaries from Pakistan said such visits from both the countries would help in creating a congenial atmosphere in the region.

Mr Balbir Singh Sewak, Deputy Advocate-General, Punjab, and other dignitaries, who accorded a warm welcome to their Pakistani counterparts, said the international legal conference would dwell upon various burning issues, including, cyber crime, appointments of judges and dispensation of justice to weaker sections, especially women.

The members of the delegation from Pakistan said they were not aware of the case of the Indian prisoner who had been awarded death sentence by the apex court of Pakistan due to mistaken identity in a series of bomb blast cases. They also feigned ignorance about the Pakistani prisoner Mukhtar Ahmed who had been languishing in an Indian jail. They said the social interaction of dignitaries from India and Pakistan would solve such problems in the coming days.

India, Pak must come closer, says Jaoya
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 28
Let the governments wrack their brains over the Kashmir issue, the people of India and Pakistan are one and wish to live like one, said Lahore-based Punjab Bar Council’s ex-vice-chairman Ramjan Khalid Jaoya soon after crossing the holy city of Amritsar this evening.

Abode a bus sent to ferry 22 delegates from Pakistan for attending a two-day international legal conference commencing in Chandigarh on Monday, Mr Jaoya asserted, “If Europe can unite and have Euro as common currency, why can’t we come together? It is not very difficult, if you think of it”.

Talking to The Tribune over a mobile phone, he insisted, “Everything between the two countries is common. Little wonder, they want the borders cutting across their hearts to end”.

Giving details, he asserted, “The people are the same”. Quoting an example, he said, “If you were to make me stand among the crowd in a market in India, you will not even be able to say I am a Pakistani. We all look similar. That’s not all. You will not be able to make out the difference even after I open my mouth. After all, the language is also the same. Even the legal system is identical. Section 302 is murder here and there also. You are booked for cheating under Section 420 in both the countries. What other proof of oneness do you need!”

Regarding the possibility of improving the ties between the two countries, he asserted, “Such conferences, encouraging interaction between the citizens of the two countries, will go a long way in building better relationships. And believe me things will improve if we continue with the exchange of delegates, and thoughts”.

Giving reasons, he explained, “After all, the people want to live together in peace and harmony. They too want to drive down the border separating the two nations with the same culture for meeting their brothers. It is high time that the so-far unsurmountable wall is pulled down”.

But what about political will to bring the two countries together? Isn’t it missing? “That does not matter. The governments can continue to frame their own foreign policies, issue threats and hurl abuses, but the citizens of both the countries are independent. They are quite capable of taking their own decisions. Besides, they are powerful enough to mount pressure on the authorities to take concrete steps in the right direction”.