ISLAMABAD, March 26: Pakistan and Afghan members of the parliament, former officials, members of the civil society and media persons will begin three-day dialogue in Islamabad from Monday to explore ways to bring the two countries closer, organizers said Sunday.
The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) and the Kabul-
based Women & Peace Studies Organization (WPSO) will hold another round of the Pakistan-Afghanistan track 1.5 & II project Beyond Boundaries.
The Afghanistan side include Elay Ershad, Member of Parliament; Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, head of executive council of the High Peace Council; Wazmah Frogh, Civil Society Activist and head of WPSO; Khalid Pashtoon, member of parliament from Kandahar Province, Mirwais Yasini, former Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Mozammil Shinwari, former Deputy Minister of Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Sami Mahdi, Rahim Danish, Journalist ARIANA TV, Director TOLO TV and Humira Saqeb, Chairperson of Afghan Civil Society Joint Working Group and Executive Officer of Afghan Women News Agency.
The key Pakistani delegation members are Dr. Shoaib Suddle, former Police chief in Sindh and Balochistan, Qazi Humayun, former ambassador; Mian Sanaullah, former ambassador; Shazia Marri and Ayesha Gulalai, both members of the National Assembly and Tahir Khan, a senior journalist. They will be accompanied by Imtiaz Gul, Head of CRSS.
The members will also hold meetings with senior Pakistani officials including Foreign Affairs Adviser, Sartaj Aziz and National Security Adviser Nasir Janjua. Some of the delegates will also speak at Quaid-e-Azam and NUST universities.
Organizers say that the dialogue is aimed at developing understanding on the identified bilateral issues to help detox narratives, improve public perceptions, and mitigate mutual allegations and suspicions. They argue the members will act as bridge between two governments, to ensure continuation of bilateral conversation and promote and foster better people-to-people contacts between the two countries.
Both sides have already held meetings in Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan and Kabul and Mazaar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.
The groups will keep lobbying with their respective governments on the progress of the previous and newly generated recommendations of Beyond Boundaries.
During their dialogue last month in Kabul, the Afghan and Pakistani members called on both Pakistan and Afghanistan to exercise restraint in the current situation in the larger interest of the people of the two countries.
The group also called on both governments to instantly provide counsellor access to prisoners detained in both countries on various charges as this could help in providing mutual legal assistance and fair trial. -NNI
