Dr Mubashir’s efforts for peace highlighted

LAHORE:Dr. Mubashir Hasan was a visionary who yearned for peace through empowerment of people in South Asia. He was the founder and the guiding spirit of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy. South Asia has lost a great crusader for the rights of the poor and peace between India and Pakistan.

A press release jointly issued on behalf of the National Committees of India and Pakistan by Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) Pakistan Secretariat highlights his efforts for peace. It said the spectre of war loomed large on the horizon of India and Pakistan by 1993. It was at this critical juncture that Dr. Mubashir Hasan and a group of his friends took the initiative to come to India to appeal to Indian political leaders, academics and civil society actors to initiate people-to-people dialogue for peace.

He had argued, when the governments do not talk to each other, it was necessary for the people to take the initiative to begin cross-border dialogue for peace and not let a handful of military-civil bureaucrats and politicians decide the destiny of a billion plus people of the subcontinent. People needed to intervene immediately to stop the madness and hatred from spreading. The visit of Dr. Hasan to India in 1994 led to the formation of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD). He was the main spirit behind the initiative. It was a totally unique idea at a time when even exchange of newspapers between the two countries was blocked. It would be completely different from the track-two dialogue forums which were essentially statist and elitist.

PIPFPD called on the two governments to recognise that Kashmir was not merely a territorial dispute between the two states, but concerned the aspirations and lives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control. It called for establishing cross-LoC contacts and for involving the people of all regions of J&K to search for a peaceful democratic solution to the dispute.

Dr Mubashir Hasan is survived by his wife, Dr Zeenat Hasan and a large number of friends, admirers and disciples in India and Pakistan. Today, when the two countries have stopped issuing visa, and anyone who talks of peace is being called an enemy agent, Mubashir Hasan’s bold step to visit India in the teeth of opposition and threats, beckons us to follow his lead.