20000329

Rotary's peace

moot begins

tomorrow

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Javed Jabbar, Adviser to the Chief Executive, will inaugurate the 'Conference of Peace, Goodwill and Fellowship' to be held under Rotary International in Karachi on March 30, 2000.

Eminent personalities from Pakistan and India including Shaukat Aziz, Minister of Finance and Khushwant Singh, former member of Indian parliament and journalist, will be the keynote speakers at the conference.

The other prominent speakers of the 3-day conference, which will be held for the first time in Pakistan, will be Dr. L.K. Singhvi, former Indian High Commissioner to United Kingdom; Dr. Naeem Rathore, former Director, United Nations, New York; Mehdi Masood, former Pakistan ambassador and Dr. Sher Shah Syed, Member Amnesty International.

Giving details of the conference at a press conference on Tuesday at a local hotel, Tariq Akhtar Allawala, Governor, Rotary International District, said that such conferences had previously been held in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Considering the importance of the moot, he said, Rotary International President Carlo Ravizza is personally coming to attend apart from a large number of participants from India, Holland and Bangladesh.

He said that the idea behind organising the conference was to provide an opportunity to the Rotarians of India and Pakistan to meet and discuss the possibilities of a better future. The conference, taking place immediately after the US president's peace mission to the region, acquires special significance as it would carry over the objectives of peace to new horizons.

Allawala said that the Rotarians planned to deliberate on a number of issues related to the people of both the countries. "We believe that there are many common issues which can be jointly discussed and resolved," he said, adding that for this "we need to come closer to each other and we need to understand each other in a mover positive manner".

Specific issues to be discussed by various groups to be formed by the conference include matched club/inter-country committee; last lap for polio eradication, improved communications for better understanding and development and goodwill through programmes for youth.

Allawala expressed the hope that the conference would help in removing a lot of misconceptions and apprehensions thus providing an opportunity to understand each other in a more positive manner and communicate goodwill messages to the people of both the countries.